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Camtjri^ffe  9[rrf)aeoIogiral  anlr  a^tftnologiral  ^ttits 


THE    HEROIC    AGE 


0 Longitude  5  E.of  Greenw.  10 


MAP    OF    CENTRAL    EUROPE 
illustrating  the  Heroic  Age  of  the  Teutonic  Peoples 

Where  the  same  name  occurs  both  in  capitals  and  italics  the  former  denote  a 
position  occupied  in  the  early  part  of  the  Heroic  Age,  while  the  latter 
mark  a  change  or  extension  of  territories. 


THE    HEROIC    AGE 


Q-y         BY 
H.    MUNRO    CHADWICK 

Fellow  of  Clare  College,  Cambridge 


Cambridge  : 
at  the  University  Press 

1912 

Reprinted 
1967 


Published  by  the  Syndics  of  the  Cambridge  University  Press 

Bentley  House,  200  Euston  Road,  London,  N.W.  1 

American  Branch:  32  East  57th  Street,  New  York,  N.Y.  10022 


PUBLISHER   S   NOTE 


Cambridge  University  Press  Library  Editions  are  reissues  of 
out-of-print  standard  works  from  the  Cambridge  catalogue.  The 
texts  are  unrevised  and,  apart  from  minor  correctionsi,  reproduce 
the  latest  published  edition.  TD  A/  ^  'O       ^\  -^ 


First  published  1912 
Reprinted  1967 


First  printed  in  Great  Britain  at  the  University  Printing  House,  Cambridge 

Reprinted  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Library  of  Congress  Catalogue  Card  Number:  13-13081 


PREFACE 

THE  type  of  poetry  commonly  known  as  heroic  is  one 
which  makes  its  appearance  in  various  nations  and  in 
various  periods  of  history.  No  one  can  fail  to  observe  that 
certain  similar  features  are  to  be  found  in  poems  of  this  type 
which  are  widely  separated  from  one  another  both  in  date 
and  place  of  origin.  In  view  of  this  fact  it  has  seemed  worth 
while  to  attempt  a  comparative  study  of  two  groups  of  such 
poems  with  the  object  of  determining  the  nature  of  the  resem- 
blances between  them  and  the  causes  to  which  they  are  due. 
Occasional  illustrations  have  been  taken  from  other  groups  of 
poems  belonging  to  the  same  type. 

The  first  part  of  the  book  deals  with  the  early  heroic 
poetry  and  traditions  of  the  Teutonic  peoples,  more  especially 
with  those  stories  which  were  the  common  property  of  various 
Teutonic  peoples.  It  is  pointed  out  that  these  stories  all  relate 
to  a  period  with  definite  limits — a  period  for  which  a  consider- 
able amount  of  information  is  available  from  external  sources. 
The  subjects  discussed  include  the  distribution  of  the  stories 
and  the  relationship  between  the  various  versions  of  them,  the 
antiquity  of  the  earliest  poems  and  the  conditions  under  which 
they  were  produced.  Lastly,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
estimate  the  significance  of  the  various  elements,  historical, 
mythical  and  fictitious,  of  which  the  stories  are  composed. 

The  second  part  deals  with  Greek  heroic  poetry  and^ 
traditions.  These  relate  to  a  period  for  which  little  or  no 
external  evidence  is  available;  and  consequently  they  present 
many  problems,  the  bearings  of  which  can  hardly  be  estimated 
without  reference  to  the  existence  of  similar  phenomena  else- 
where.    In  general  I  have  followed  the  same  plan  as   in   the 


Vlll  PREFACE 

first  part,  and  made  use  throughout  of  the  results  obtained 
there.  If  some  excuse  is  necessary  for  dealing  with  so  well 
worn  a  theme  I  may  plead  that,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  goes, 
it  has  not  hitherto  been  approached  from  this  point  of  view. 

In  the  third  part  attention  has  been  called  to  the  existence 
of  a  number  of  somewhat  striking  characteristics  common  to 
the  two  groups  of  poems  and  an  attempt  made  to  account  for 
them.  The  conclusion  to  which  I  have  been  brought  is  that 
the  resemblances  in  the  poems  are  due  primarily  to  resem- 
blances in  the  ages  to  which  they  relate  and  to  which  they 
ultimately  owe  their  origin.  The  comparative  study  of  heroic 
poetry  therefore  involves  the  comparative  study  of  '  Heroic 
Ages';  and  the  problems  which  it  presents  are  essentially 
problems  of  anthropology. 

In  this  conclusion  I  am  glad  to  find  myself  in  agreement 
with  Dr  Haddon,  who  suggested  to  me  that  a  comparative 
study  of  this  kind  would  be  a  suitable  subject  for  the  Cam- 
bridge Archaeological  and  Ethnological  Series.  I  take  this 
opportunity  of  thanking  him  for  bringing  the  matter  before 
the  Syndics  of  the  University  Press  and  for  the  interest  which 
he  has  kindly  taken  in  the  progress  of  the  work. 

Owing  to  the  pressure  of  teaching  and  other  duties  a  con- 
siderable time  has  unfortunately  elapsed  since  the  earlier  portions 
of  the  book  were  printed.  I  would  therefore  respectfully  call 
the  reader's  attention  to  the  list  of  Addenda  at  the  end,  where 
references  will  be  found  to  several  important  works  which  have 
appeared  in  the  meantime. 

In  a  work,  such  as  this,  which  deals  with  records  preserved 
in  a  number  of  different  languages,  difficulties  necessarily  arise 
with  regard  to  the  spelling  of  proper  names.  In  the  represen- 
tation of  Teutonic  names  the  system  adopted  in  my  previous 
books  has  in  general  been  retained.  Any  such  system  is  of 
course  open  to  objections,  of  the  cogency  of  which  I  am  quite 
aware;  and  consequently  I  have  not  felt  inclined  to  carry  out 
my  scheme  with  rigid  consistency.  The  same  remarks  apply 
to  the  representation  of  Greek  names — which  will  doubtless 
displease  many  critics.  South  Slavonic  names  and  words  are 
given  according  to  the  usual  Croatian  orthography. 


PREFACE  IX 

I  cannot  attempt  here  to  enumerate  the  various  scholars  to 
whose  writings  I  am  indebted.  It  will  be  seen  that  they  are 
many  and  that  much  of  what  I  have  had  to  do  is  in  the  nature 
of  criticism.  One  name  however,  that  of  Professor  Ridgeway, 
I  cannot  leave  unmentioned,  since  it  is  largely  to  his  inspiring 
influence — by  no  means  through  his  writings  alone — that  my 
interest  in  these  subjects  is  due. 

It  remains  for  me  to  record  my  obligations  to  a  number 
of  friends  who  have  generously  responded  to  my  requests 
for  information  or  criticism  on  various  points.  In  particular 
I  must  mention  Miss  A.  C.  Paues,  Mr  A.  B.  Cook,  Dr  W.  H.  R. 
Rivers,  Mr  S.  A.  Cook,  Professor  J.  W.  H.  Atkins,  Professor  A. 
Mawer,  Mr  E.  H.  Minns  and  Mr  F.  W.  Green.  Above  all  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr  E.  C.  Quiggin  and  Mr  F.  G.  M.  Beck,  who  have 
most  kindly  read  through  a  considerable  part  of  the  book  in 
proof  and  several  chapters  even  in  manuscript.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add  that  in  the  sections  dealing  with  Celtic  history 
and  poetry  Mr  Quiggin's  criticism  has  been  of  the  greatest  value 
to  me.  My  thanks  are  due,  further,  to  my  pupils,  Mr  C.  A. 
Scutt,  of  Clare  College,  and  Mr  Bruce  Dickins,  of  Magdalene 
College,  for  similar  kind  services  in  the  proofs  of  the  later 
chapters.  From  the  staff  of  the  University  Library — in 
particular  I  must  mention  Mr  A.  Rogers  and  Mr  O.  Johnson 
— I  have  received  the  same  unfailing  and  courteous  attention 
as  in  the  past.  Lastly,  I  have  to  thank  the  Syndics  of  the 
University  Press  for  undertaking  the  publication  of  the  book 
and  the  staff  for  the  efficient  and  obliging  way  in  which  the 
printing  and  corrections  have  been  carried  out. 

H.  M.  C. 
December,  191 1. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.  The  early  narrative  poetry  of  the  Teutonic  peoples 

II.  The  Heroic  Age  of  the  Teutonic  peoples 

III.  Scene  and  nationality  in  the  heroic  stories  . 

IV.  The  origin  and  history  of  the  heroic  poems  . 

V.  The  poetry  and  minstrelsy  of  early  times 

VI.  Supernatural  elements  in  the  heroic  stories 
VII.  Mythical  elements  in  the  heroic  poems 

VIII.    The  use  of  fiction  in  the  heroic  poems 

IX.  The  Heroic  Age  of  Greece    . 

X.  The  Homeric  poems 

XI.  Early  Greek  poetry  and  minstrelsy  . 
XII. -'Supernatural  elements  in  the  Homeric  poems 


XIII.  Myth  in  the  Homeric  poems 

J 

XIV.  Fiction  in  the  Homeric  poems       .        . 

XV.  The  common  characteristics  of  Teutonic  and  Greek 

heroic  poetry 

XVI.  Society  in  the  Heroic  Age 

XVII.   Government  in  the  Heroic  Age    .... 

XVIII.   Religion  in  the  Heroic  Age 

XIX.     The    causes    and    antecedent    conditions    of    thi 
Heroic  AfiE 


PAGE 

I 

19 
30 
41 

n 

no 

131 
151 
168 

193 

221 
249 
263 
292 

320 

344 
366 

393 

432 


CONTENTS  xi 


NOTES. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  use  of  heroic  names  in  England         ...  64 

II.  On  the  dating  of  certain  sound-changes  in  Anglo- 

Saxon      66 

III.  Literary  influence  in  Beowulf 73 

IV.  On  the  Heroic  poetry  of  the  Slavonic  peoples     .  loi 

V.  The  Heroic  poetry  of  the  Celtic  peoples         .        .  105 

VI.  The  Trojan  Catalogue 244 

VII.  The  Battle  of  Kossovo  in  Servian  poetry        .        .  313 

VIII.  The  social,  political  and  religious  characteristics 

OF  the  Celtic  and  Slavonic  Heroic  Ages    .        .  427 


Addenda  et  Corrigenda 464 

Index 469 


MAPS. 

Central  Europe,  illustrating  the  Heroic  Age 

OF  THE  Teutonic  Peoples  ....     To  face  Title-page 


Greece,  illustrating  the  Catalogue  of  Ships 

Greece,  showing  the  distribution  of  the  dia- 
lects IN  historical  times 


between  pp.  288 
and  289  I 


TO 

JAMES    RENDEL    HARRIS 

IN    GRATITUDE    AND    FRIENDSHIP 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  EARLY  NARRATIVE  POETRY  OF  THE 
TEUTONIC  PEOPLES. 

The  remains  of  English  poetry  which  have  come  down  to  us 
from  times  anterior  to  the  Norman  conquest  are  mainly  of  a 
religious  character  and  deal  with  the  lives  of  saints  or  with 
subjects  derived  from  the  Bible  or  ecclesiastical  tradition.  The 
secular  poems  are  comparatively  few  in  number  and,  with  one 
exception,  of  inconsiderable  length.  Most  of  them  are  narrative 
poems  and  admit  of  a  very  obvious  classification  according  to- 
the  choice  of  subjects  with  which  they  are  concerned.  One 
group  deals  with  the  exploits  of  English  kings  and  noblemen  of 
the  tenth  century,  the  other  with  the  exploits  and  adventures  of 
persons  who  did  not  belong  to  this  country.  We  will  take  the 
second  group  of  poems  first,  as  it  is  admitted  by  all  authorities  to 
be  the  earlier  of  the  two. 

The  longest  poem  of  this  class  is  Beowulf,  an  epic  of  3183 
verses,  the  subject  of  which  briefly  is  as  follows:  Hrothgar,  king 
of  the  Danes,  has  built  a  splendid  hall,  but  is  unable  to  enjoy  the 
use  of  it  on  account  of  the  ravages  of  a  monster  named  Grendel, 
who  attacks  the  hall  by  night  and  devours  all  whom  he  finds 
there.  Beowulf,  a  nephew  of  Hygelac,  king  of  the  Geatas, 
hearing  of  Hrothgar's  distress  comes  to  his  help  and  destroys 
first  the  monster  himself  and  then  his  mother  who  had  come  to 
exact  vengeance.  He  is  thanked  and  rewarded  for  his  exploits 
by  Hrothgar,  and  returns  to  his  own  home.  After  this  a  long 
period  is  supposed  to  elapse.  Hygelac  has  perished  in  an 
expedition  against  the  Frisians,  and  his  son  Heardred  has  been 
slain  by  the  Swedes.     Beowulf  has  succeeded  to  the  throne  and 


2  EARLY   TEUTONIC    POETRY  [CHAP. 

reigned  many  years.  In  his  old  age  he  resolves  to  attack  a 
dragon  which  is  ravaging  the  land,  and  in  spite  of  the  cowardice 
of  his  followers,  of  whom  all  except  one  forsake  him,  he 
eventually  succeeds  in  destroying  it,  though  not  before  he  has 
himself  received  a  mortal  wound.  The  poem  ends  with  an 
account  of  his  funeral. 

The  action  is  interrupted  a  good  many  times  by  references 
to  incidents  in  the  history  of  the  royal  families  of  the  Danes  and 
the  Geatas,  particularly  to  Hygelac's  fatal  expedition  and  to  the 
dealings  of  his  family  with  the  Swedish  kings  Ongentheow, 
Onela  and  Eadgils.  We  find  also  a  number  of  allusions  to 
heroes  of  the  past  such  as  Sigemund,  Eormenric,  Finn  and  Offa, 
who  are  known  to  us  from  other  sources. 

To  the  same  class  of  poetry  belong  some  fragments  dealing 
with  the  stories  of  Finn  and  Waldhere.  The  fragment  relating 
to  Finn  is  very  obscure  and  indeed  would  be  quite  unintelligible 
were  it  not  for  a  passage  in  Beowulf  (vv.  1068 — 1159)  where  the 
same  story  is  introduced  as  the  subject  of  a  recitation  by 
Hrothgar's  minstrel.  A  certain  Hnaef,  represented  as  a  vassal 
of  Healfdene,  Hrothgar's  father,  was  slain  in  a  fortress  belonging 
to  Finn,  king  of  the  Frisians.  His  followers  made  so  brave  a 
defence  that  Finn  was  compelled  to  come  to  terms  with  them. 
Subsequently,  when  an  opportunity  presented  itself  they  took 
vengeance  upon  Finn  and  slew  him.  The  fragment  gives  an 
account  of  the  fighting  which  took  place,  probably  in  the 
encounter  immediately  after  Hnaefs  death. 

The  story  of  Waldhere  is  well  known  from  German  sources 
which  we  shall  have  to  mention  presently.  One  of  the  fragments 
is  taken  up  by  an  altercation  between  Waldhere  and  the 
Burgundian  king  Guthhere,  before  they  begin  to  fight,  while  the 
other  contains  an  exhortation  to  Waldhere  by  the  lady  to  acquit 
himself  bravely. 

Widsith,  though  not  an  epic  poem  itself,  refers  to  a  large 
number  of  the  characters  which  figure  in  Beowulf,  Finn  and 
Waldhere.  It  is  stated  that  the  poet  was  in  the  service  of  a 
certain  Eadgils,  prince  of  the  Myrgingas,  and  that  in  company 
with  Ealhhild,  apparently  a  princess  of  the  same  family,  he 
visited  the  court  of  the  Gothic  king  Eormenric.     The  greater 


IJ  EARLY  TEUTONIC  POETRY  3 

part  of  the  poem  is  taken  up  with  lists  of  peoples  which  he 
had  visited  and  of  famous  princes  whom  he  knew  personally  or 
by  report. 

The  elegy  of  Deor  consists  of  a  number  of  brief  notices  of 
misfortunes  which  had  befallen  various  persons,  Weland  and 
Beaduhild,  Geat,  Theodric  and  the  subjects  of  Eormenric.  Each 
notice  ends  with  a  refrain  expressing  the  belief  or  hope  that  the 
poet  will  be  able  to  survive  his  misfortunes  as  they  did.  At  the 
end  he  says  that  he  had  been  the  bard  of  the  Heodeningas,  but 
that  his  office  had  been  taken  away  from  him  and  given  to  a 
skilful  minstrel  named  Heorrenda. 

In  a  later  chapter  we  shall  have  to  discuss  the  question  when 
these  poems  were  composed.  At  present  it  will  be  enough  to 
remark  that  though  the  MSS.  in  which  they  are  preserved  date 
only  from  the  tenth  or  eleventh  centuries  almost  all  scholars 
agree  that  the  poems  themselves  cannot  be  later  than  the  eighth 
century,  while  probably  the  majority  would  refer  their  composi- 
tion, in  part  at  least  to  the  seventh.  In  their  present  form  they 
cannot  be  earlier  than  this,,  for  with  the  exception  of  the  Finn- 
fragment  all  of  them  contain  Christian  allusions. 

The  later  group  of  secular  narrative  poems  may  best  be 
described  as  historical.  The  earliest  of  them  celebrates  the 
battle  of  Brunanburh  won  by  Aethelstan  in  937  over  the 
Scottish  king  Constantine  II  and  his  Scandinavian  allies. 
Others  describe  Edmund's  conquest  of  the  Five  Boroughs,  the 
coronation  of  Edgar,  the  glories  of  his  reign,  the  troubles  which 
followed,  and  lastly  the  death  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  The 
longest  of  all  is  a  detailed  account  of  the  disastrous  battle 
of  Maldon,  in  which  Byrhtnoth,  earl  of  Essex,  lost  his  life. 
All  these  pieces  except  the  last  are  found  inserted  in  texts 
of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  and  all  without  exception  appear  to 
have  been  composed  soon  after  the  events  which  they  com- 
memorate. 

In  addition  to  the  above  there  are  a  number  of  other  short 
poems  which  are  not  essentially  of  a  religious  character.  The 
most  important  of  these  are  the  Wanderer,  the  Wife's  Complaint, 
the  Husband's  Message  and  the  Ruin — to  which  we  may  per- 
haps add  the  first  half  of  the  Seafarer.    They  are  probably  all  of 


4  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

fairly  early  date,  but  they  differ  from  the  poems  we  have  been 
discussing  in  the  fact  that  they  contain  no  proper  names.  Those 
of  them  which  can  be  called  narrative  deal  apparently  with 
typical  characters  or  situations.  A  certain  amount  of  magical 
and  gnomic  poetry  has  also  survived,  while  metrical  riddles  are 
numerous,  but  these  need  not  concern  us  here. 

It  is  scarcely  open  to  doubt  that  a  large  amount  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  narrative  poetry  has  perished.  Several  historical  poems 
and  ballads  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  now  lost,  can  be 
traced  in  texts  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  and  in  Latin  works ^ 
Attempts  have  been  made  also  to  show  that  narrative  poems 
were  used  by  the  compilers  of  the  early  part  of  the  Chronicle 
and  by  several  Latin  histories  referring  to  the  same  period,  but 
the  evidence  adduced  is  very  doubtful.  Perhaps  the  most  likely 
case  is  the  story  of  Hengest  and  Horsa,  especially  in  the  form  in 
which  it  appears  in  the  Historia  Brittonum.  On  the  other  hand 
it  is  probable  that  parts  of  the  Vitae  Duorum  Offarum,  a 
St  Albans  work  dating  from  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  are  derived  ultimately  from  poems  which  described 
Offa's  single  combat  and  marriage — incidents  to  which  we  find 
brief  references  in  Widsith  and  Beowulf  respectively.  A  similar 
origin  may  perhaps  be  claimed  for  Walter  Map's  story  (^De  Nugis 
Curialium,  II  17)  of  Gado  (Wada).  A  few  corrupt  verses  of  a 
poem  on  this  subject,  obviously  of  late  date,  have  been  preserved 
in  a  Latin  homily^. 

The  earlier  and  later  groups  of  narrative  poems  have  in 
general*  the  same  metrical  form  and  on  the  whole  a  very  similar 
terminology.  The  love  of  battle-scenes  is  also  common  to  both. 
In  other  respects  however  they  differ  greatly.  Here  we  need 
only  notice  the  entire  difference  in  subject-matter  ;  the  poems  of 
the  second  group  contain  no  allusion  to  the  subjects  of  the  first. 
Much  greater  changes  however,  both  in  form  and  matter,  are 
noticeable  when  English  poetry  reappears  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries.    The  majority  of  these  poems  are  of  French 

1  Cf.  Brandl  in  Paul's  Grundriss  d.  germ.  Pkilol.'^,  ii  pp.  1083  flf.,  1087  f. 
■■'  Academy,  1896,  I  137  ;  cf.  Brandl,  op.  cit.,  p.  1085. 

3  This  remark  applies  more  especially  to  the  poems  on  Brunanburh  and  Maldon 
in  the  later  group. 


I]  EARLY  TEUTONIC  POETRY  5 

origin.  But  even  when  the  scene  is  laid  in  England,  the  subjects 
are  usually  drawn  from  written  sources — which  is  certainly  not 
the  case  with  the  historical  poems  of  the  tenth  century.  To  the 
subjects  of  the  earlier  group  of  Anglo-Saxon  poems  there  is 
scarcely  a  reference. 

The  period  of  German  literature  which  corresponds  chrono- 
logically to  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  in  England  is  far  inferior  to 
the  latter  in  remains  of  secular  narrative  poetry.  We  possess 
only  one  fragment  of  a  poem  somewhat  similar  to  the  Finn- 
fragment,  preserved  in  a  MS.  dating  from  about  800,  and 
one  poem  of  somewhat  later  date,  celebrating  a  victory  of 
Ludwig  III,  king  of  the  West  Franks.  To  these  we  may  add 
three  or  four  very  short  metrical  charms,  similar  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  magical  pieces  mentioned  above. 

The  subject  of  the  first  of  these  poems  is  as  follows :  Hilde- 
brand  {Hiltibrant)  is  an  old  warrior  who  has  left  his  country  with 
Dietrich  {Tkeotrih)  and  served  with  the  Huns.  On  his  return 
from  exile,  thirty  years  later,  he  is  challenged  by  a  young 
warrior  named  Hadubrand.  In  the  altercation  with  which  the 
piece  opens  Hildebrand  discovers  that  his  opponent  is  his  own 
son,  acquaints  him  with  the  fact  and  tries  to  dissuade  him  from 
the  combat  with  offers  of  rich  presents.  But  the  young  man 
refuses  to  believe  him,  and  taunts  him  with  cowardice  and  guile 
in  trying  to  put  him  off  his  guard.  Hildebrand  is  therefore 
obliged  to  fight,  and  the  fragment  comes  to  an  end  in  the  midst 
of  the  encounter. 

The  Ludwigslied  is  a  poem  of  fifty-nine  verses  celebrating 
the  praises  of  Ludwig  III,  with  special  reference  to  his  victory 
over  the  Northmen  at  Saucourt  in  881,  and  seems  to  have  been 
composed  before  the  king's  death  in  the  following  year.  It  is 
not  in  the  old  Teutonic  alliterative  metre  which  we  find  in 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry  and  in  the  Hildebrandslied,  but  in  the 
later  rhyming  verse.  The  religious  element  is  prominent 
throughout. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  a  considerable  amount  of  secular 
narrative  poetry  once  existed  in  German.  Einhard  in  his  Life 
of  Charlemagne  (cap.  29)  states  that  the  emperor  collected 
native  and  very  ancient  poems  in  which  were  related  the  deeds 


6  EARLY   TEUTONIC    POETRY  [CHAP. 

and  battles  of  kings  of  former  times\  But  during  the  following 
centuries  poetry  of  this  kind  seems  to  have  gone  entirely  out  ol 
favour  among  the  higher  classes.  We  do  indeed  find  occasional 
references  to  such  poems  in  later  Latin  works.  In  particular  the 
Annals  of  Quedlinburg  have  incorporated  from  them  a  number 
of  notices  relating  to  Eormenric,  Theodric  {Thideric  de  Berne) 
and  other  heroes  of  antiquity.  But  here  it  is  expressly  stated 
that  it  was  among  the  peasants  {rustici)  that  these  poems  were 
known.  Other  Latin  chronicles  cite  lost  poems  relating  to 
persons  and  events  of  the  tenth  century,  which  may  have  been 
somewhat  similar  to  the  contemporary  Anglo-Saxon  poems, 
though  generally  they  appear  to  have  been  of  a  less  serious 
character. 

Some  compensation  for  the  loss  of  early  German  poetry  is 
afforded  by  the  preservation  of  a  few  Latin  poems,  of  which  the 
most  important  is  Walthariiis  manu  fortis,  composed  probably 
about  930  by  Ekkehard  of  St  Gall.  The  subject  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Waldhere  fragments.  Waltharius  and 
Hiltgund,  the  son  and  daughter  respectively  of  two  princes  in 
Gaul,  were  betrothed  in  their  childhood,  but  had  to  be  given  up 
as  hostages  to  Attila,  king  of  the  Huns.  After  many  years  they 
escaped  and  carried  off  with  them  much  treasure.  Hearing  of 
this.  King  Guntharius,  who  dwelt  at  Worms,  determined  to 
waylay  them  and  set  out  with  twelve  warriors,  among  them 
the  brave  Hagano  who  had  formerly  shared  Waltharius'  exile. 
Waltharius  is  overtaken  in  a  defile  of  the  Vosges  and  slays 
eleven  of  the  warriors  in  single  combat.  In  his  final  encounter 
with  Hagano  and  Guntharius  all  three  are  crippled,  but 
Waltharius  is  able  to  make  his  way  home  with  Hiltgund.  There 
are  other  poems,  one  of  which  combines  German  with  Latin  in 
each  verse,  celebrating  the  deeds  of  the  contemporary  Saxon 
emperors  and  their  relatives. 

The  second  period  of  German  literature,  beginning  in  the 
twelfth  century,  is  incomparably  superior  to    the   first    in    the 

J  Saxo  Poeta,  who  wrote  about  890,  speaks  of  uulgaria  carmina  which  celebrated 
Pippinos  Carolos  Hludowicos  et  Theodricos  et  Carlomannos  Hlothariosque  (Mon.  Germ., 
Script.  I  268).  But  it  is  usually  held  that  these  words  are  due  to  a  mistaken  inference 
from  Einhard,  whose  work  he  was  using. 


l]  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  7 

amount  of  secular  narrative  poetry  which  it  has  left  behind. 
Here  we  need  only  concern  ourselves  with  those  poems  which 
draw  their  subjects  from  ancient  native  traditions.  These  are 
mostly  anonymous  and  come  from  the  southern  districts, 
especially  Austria  and  Bavaria.  Their  metrical  form  is  modern 
and  similar  to  that  of  other  poetry  of  the  same  period.  The 
best  known  of  these  poems  is  the  Nibelungenlied,  which  dates 
from  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Only  a  very  brief 
resume  of  its  contents  can  be  given  here. 

Siegfried  {Stvrit),  the  son  of  Siegmund,  comes  from  Xanten 
to  Worms  and  asks  for  the  hand  of  Kriemhild,  the  sister  of  the 
Burgundian  king  Gunther.  He  joins  Gunther  in  his  campaigns 
and  by  magical  arts  enables  him  to  win  the  amazon  Brunhild 
{Prilnhilt)  for  his  bride.  The  two  wives  quarrel,  and  Brunhild 
learns  from  Kriemhild  of  the  part  played  by  Siegfried  towards 
her.  On  hearing  this  she  begins  to  long  for  his  death,  and 
eventually  he  is  murdered  at  a  hunting  party  by  Hagen 
{Hagene),  the  chief  of  Gunther's  knights.  Hagen  also  deprives 
Kriemhild  of  Siegfried's  treasure  {der  Nibelunge  hort)  and  sinks  it 
in  the  Rhine.  Kriemhild  is  afterwards  married  to  Etzel,  king  of 
the  Huns  and,  burning  for  vengeance,  persuades  him  to  invite 
Gunther  on  a  visit,  together  with  his  brothers  Gemot  and 
Giselher  and  also  Hagen.  Soon  after  their  arrival  she  brings 
about  a  quarrel,  and  after  a  huge  slaughter  on  both  sides, 
Gunther  and  Hagen,  who  have  lost  all  their  men,  are  captured 
by  Dietrich  von  Bern,  Etzel's  vassal.  Kriemhild  puts  them  to 
death,  violating  the  oath  which  she  had  given  to  spare  them,  and 
in  anger  at  this  treachery  Hildebrand,  Dietrich's  old  retainer, 
slays  her. 

Closely  connected  in  subject  with  the  Nibelungenlied  is  the 
Klage,  which  describes  the  funeral  of  those  slain  in  the  fighting 
with  Gunther  and  the  lamentation  over  them.  Here  too  we  may 
notice  the  Seyfridslied,  though  in  the  form  in  which  it  has  come 
down  to  us  it  belongs  to  a  much  later  period.  In  reality  it  is 
clearly  a  combination  of  two  different  ballads,  both  of  which 
deal  with  Siegfried's  early  years.  The  first  relates  how  he  was 
brought  up  by  a  smith  and  slew  a  dragon.  The  second  gives 
an  account  of  another  similar  adventure — this  time  with  a  fiery 


8  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

dragon  which  had  carried  off  Kriemhild  from  her  father's  home. 
Siegfried  kills  the  dragon  and  at  the  same  time  takes  possession 
of  the  treasure  of  certain  dwarfs,  the  sons  of  Nybling. 

A  number  of  other  medieval  poems  deal  with  the  adventures 
of  Dietrich  von  Bern  and  his  knights.  Alpharts  Tod  tells  the 
story  of  the  young  knight  Alphart,  Hildebrand's  nephew,  and 
his  encounter  with  two  of  Ermenrich's  warriors  named  Witege 
and  Heime,  by  the  former  of  whom  he  was  treacherously  slain. 
Dietrichs  Flucht  relates  how  Ermenrich  {EnnricJt)  was  instigated 
by  an  evil  counseller  named  Sibeche  to  plot  destruction  for  his 
nephew  Dietrich.  Though  the  plot  fails,  Hildebrand  and  several 
of  Dietrich's  other  knights  are  captured  and  imprisoned,  and  in 
order  to  obtain  their  release  Dietrich  is  forced  to  go  into  exile. 
In  the  Rabenschlacht  we  are  told  how  Dietrich  with  the  help  of 
Etzel  set  out  to  recover  his  inheritance.  While  he  is  engaged 
in  battle  with  Ermenrich,  his  brother  Diether  and  two  young 
sons  of  Etzel  are  slain  by  Witege.  Dietrich  rides  after  Witege 
to  exact  vengeance,  but  Witege  disappears  in  the  sea.  Virginal 
describes  how  Dietrich  was  imprisoned  by  a  giant  in  a  castle 
called  Muter  and  rescued  by  Hildebrand,  Witege,  Heime  and 
others.  Further  adventures  with  giants  and  dwarfs  are  related 
in  the  Eckenlied,  Sigenot  and  Laurin.  In  the  Rosengarten 
Dietrich  is  made  to  fight  with  Siegfried. 

The  story  of  Wolfdietrich  and  Ortnit  has  come  down  to  us 
in  several  different  forms,  but  the  outline  may  be  given  briefly 
as  follows.  Wolfdietrich,  the  son  of  king  Hugdietrich,  is  kept 
out  of  his  inheritance  by  his  brothers  or  their  guardian  Saben  on 
the  ground  of  illegitimacy.  He  betakes  himself  to  a  faithful  old 
knight,  Berchtung  of  Meran,  who  raises  an  army  to  help  him. 
But  in  the  battle  that  ensues  Berchtung  and  his  sons  are  all 
slain  or  captured,  and  Wolfdietrich  has  to  go  into  exile.  He 
then  marries  the  widow  of  a  king  named  Ortnit  and  destroys 
the  dragon  which  had  killed  him.  Eventually  he  succeeds  in 
winning  his  father's  kingdom  and  releasing  his  faithful  followers. 
Some  elements  of  this  story  appear  to  have  been  incorporated 
in  the  romance  of  King  Rother. 

The  story  of  the  poem  Kudrun  falls  naturally  into  two  parts. 
In  the  first  Hetel  {Hetele),  king  of  Denmark,  hears  of  Hilde,  a 


l]  EARLY  TEUTONIC  POETRY  9 

princess  of  Ireland  and  desires  to  marry  her.  As  her  father,  the 
fierce  Hagen,  will  not  consent,  Hetel's  warriors  Wate,  Fruote 
and  Horand  carry  her  off.  Hagen  pursues  them  to  Denmark, 
but  in  the  fight  which  follows  he  is  nearly  killed  by  Wate. 
Finally  a  reconciliation  takes  place  and  Hilde  is  allowed  to 
marry  Hetel.  In  the  second  part  Hartmuot  and  Herwig  are 
suitors  for  Kudrun,  the  daughter  of  Hetel  and  Hilde.  The 
latter  is  at  length  accepted,  but  Kudrun  is  carried  off  by 
Hartmuot  and  his  father  Ludwig  {Ludewic).  A  pursuit  follows 
and  Hetel  is  killed  by  Ludwig.  Kudrun  is  kept  at  Hartmuot's 
home  for  seven  years,  harshly  treated  by  his  mother  Gerlind, 
because  she  will  not  consent  to  become  his  wife.  At  last 
Herwig  and  her  brother  Ortwin  with  the  warriors  Wate,  Fruote 
and  Horand  come  and  rescue  her.  Ludwig  is  killed  but 
Hartmuot  is  spared  at  Kudrun's  intercession. 

In  conclusion  mention  must  be  made  of  some  fragments  of 
a  poem  dealing  with  Walther  and  Hildegund.  The  subject 
seems  to  have  been  identical  with  that  of  Ekkehard's  Waltharius. 
Reminiscences  of  other  ancient  stories  are  occasionally  to  be 
found  in  poems  of  a  romantic  character.  Among  these  we  may 
note  especially  the  poem  Herzog  Friedrich  von  Schwaben,  a 
portion  of  which  seems  to  be  derived  from  the  story  of  Weland. 

The  North  German  dialects  have  no  poetry  of  this  type, 
except  a  few  ballads  dating  from  much  later  times,  of  which  the 
most  important  is  one  on  Eormenric's  death.  But  a  great  mass 
of  legend,  derived  chiefly  from  North  German  sources,  is  pre- 
served in  the  Norse  work  ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern,  which  dates 
from  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  characters 
are  for  the  most  part  identical  with  those  which  figure  in  the 
High  German  epics,  Dietrich  von  Bern,  Ermenrich,  Witege, 
Walther,  Siegfried  etc.  Traces  of  poems  of  much  earlier  date 
have  been  sought  in  several  Latin  chronicles.  Besides  the 
references  in  the  Annals  of  Quedlinburg,  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded,  mention  may  be  made  of  the  Saxon  stories 
given  by  Widukind  and  the  Translatio  S.  Alexandri,  especially 
that  of  the  victory  over  the  Thuringian  king  Irminfrith. 

The  vernacular  poetry  of  the  Langobardi  has  entirely 
perished,  but  a  number  of  stories  given  by  the  Latin  historians 


lO  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

are  thought  to  be  based  on  early  poems.  The  first  and  most 
striking  of  these  is  the  account  of  the  battle  with  the  Vandals, 
in  which  the  two  armies  appeal  for  victory  to  Wodan  and  Fria 
respectively \  A  similar  origin  has  been  claimed  for  several 
other  narratives,  such  as  that  of  Alboin's  visit  to  Turisind,  king 
of  the  Gepidae,  and  more  especially  the  story  of  Authari  and 
Theudelinda^ 

The  Gothic  historian  Jordanes  states  (cap.  5)  that  his  com- 
patriots were  wont  to  celebrate  the  deeds  of  their  famous  men 
in  poetry,  and  it  is  probable  that  many  of  the  legends  which  he 
gives  were  ultimately  derived  from  such  poems.  Among  them 
we  may  include  not  only  the  story  of  Filimer  and  the  migration 
to  the  Black  Sea  (cap.  4) — in  which  case  ancient  poems  are 
expressly  mentioned — but  also  perhaps  that  of  the  first  migra- 
tion under  Berig  {ib.)  and  some  part  of  the  account  of  Ostrogotha 
(cap.  16  f.),  as  well  as  the  incidental  reference  to  Vidigoia's  death 
(cap.  34).  In  the  story  of  Hermanaricus  also  several  incidents, 
notably  the  death  of  Sunilda  and  the  vengeance  subsequently 
exacted  by  her  brothers  Sarus  and  Ammius  (cap.  24),  suggest  a 
tradition  preserved  in  poetic  form. 

No  Scandinavian  country  except  Iceland*  has  preserved  any 
early  poems  in  its  native  language.  The  ancient  literature  of 
Iceland  however  is  peculiarly  rich  in  secular  narrative  poetry. 
Moreover  though  the  earliest  of  these  poems  are  probably  quite 
two  centuries  later  than  Beowulf,  they  are  entirely  free  from 
Christian  influence.  Indeed  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  a 
considerable  proportion  of  them  date  from  heathen  times. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  begin  with  the  collection  of  poems 
usually  known  as  the  Older  Edda.  These  are  all  anonymous ; 
but  most  of  them  are  generally  believed  to  belong  to  the  tenth 
century,  while  a  few  may  really  have  been  composed  in  Norway 
at  a  still  earlier  date.  Eleven  of  these  poems  deal  exclusively, 
or  almost  exclusively,  with  gods,  giants  and  other  supernatural 

1  Origo  Gentis  Langobardorum  (Mon.  Germ.,  Script.  Rerum  Langobard.,  p.  2f.); 
Paulus  Diaconus,  Hist.  Lang,  i  8. 

^  Cf.  Kogel,  Geschichte  d.  deutschen  Litteratur,  i  p.  115  ff. 

*  The  poems  were  not  all  composed  in  Iceland.  Many  of  the  earliest  doubtless 
came  from  Norway,  others  perhaps  from  the  British  Isles,  while  others  again  are 
referred  to  Greenland. 


I]  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  II 

beings,  and  hence  stand  quite  apart  from  the  class  of  poetry 
with  which  we  are  concerned.  But  since  we  shall  have  to  refer 
to  them  occasionally  in  the  following  pages  it  will  be  convenient 
here  to  give  a  brief  synopsis  of  their  contents. 

Voluspd  is  a  mythological  poem  in  the  form  of  a  speech 
delivered  to  the  god  Othin  by  a  sibyl  whom  he  is  consulting. 
It  deals  with  the  origin  of  the  world,  the  history  of  the  gods 
and  their  coming  fate.  Hdvamil  is  a  collection  of  proverbial 
wisdom  and  moral  precepts  of  the  heathen  age,  with  occasional 
references  to  myth  and  ritual.  Vaf}?ruSnismdl  describes  how 
Othin  visited  the  giant  VafJ^ruSnir  and  entered  into  a  contest 
with  him  in  mythological  lore.  The  subject  of  Grimnismal  is  a 
visit  paid  by  Othin  in  disguise  to  a  king  named  GeirroSr,  who 
tortures  him.  Othin  gives  a  long  discourse  on  mythological 
matters  and  finally  reveals  himself,  whereupon  the  king  stumbles 
over  his  sword  and  dies.  Skirnismdl  relates  how  Skirnir,  the 
servant  of  the  god  Frey,  was  sent  to  obtain  for  his  master  the 
hand  of  the  giantess  GerSr,  of  whom  he  had  become  passionately 
enamoured.  HarbartSslioS  is  taken  up  with  an  altercation 
between  the  god  Thor  and  a  ferryman  called  HdrbarSr  (generally 
supposed  to  be  Othin),  who  refuses  to  take  him  over  a  strait. 
H^^miskviSa  gives  an  account  of  Thor's  adventures  when  he 
went  to  visit  the  giant  Hymir.  Lokasenna  is  occupied  with  a 
number  of  scandalous  charges  brought  by  Loki  against  various 
gods  and  goddesses  who  have  been  invited  to  a  feast  by  Aegir. 
ThrymskviSa  relates  how  the  giant  Thrymr,  having  obtained 
possession  of  Thor's  hammer,  demanded  the  goddess  Freyia  as 
his  bride,  and  how  Thor  came  disguised  as  Freyia  and  slew  the 
giant.  Alvissmal  is  a  dialogue  between  Thor  and  the  dwarf 
Alvi'ss,  who  is  a  suitor  for  his  daughter.  Thor  detains  the  dwarf 
with  questions  on  the  various  names  of  natural  objects  and 
phenomena  until  the  fatal  moment  of  daybreak.  VegtamskviSa 
describes  how  Othin  went  to  consult  a  sibyl  on  the  impending 
fate  of  Balder. 

In  addition  to  these  pieces,  all  of  which  probably  come  from 
one  collection,  there  are  two  semi-mythical  poems  contained  in 
other  works.  Rigsmdl  or  Rigs)?ula  relates  how  a  certain  Ri'gr 
(identified  in  the  introduction  with  the  god  Heimdallr)  became 


12  EARLY  TEUTONIC  POETRY  [CHAP. 

the  progenitor  of  the  three  classes  of  men — the  characteristics  of 
which  are  described  at  length.  Hyndluli6t5  is  mainly  a  genea- 
logical poem,  narrating  how  Freyia  went  to  consult  the  giantess 
Hyndla  as  to  the  ancestry  of  her  devotee,  6ttarr  the  son  of 
Innsteinn.  It  contains  also  some  purely  mythological  matter 
which  is  generally  supposed  to  have  come  from  a  separate  poem. 
Here  also  we  may  mention  two  pieces  known  as  Grogaldr  and 
Fiolsvinnsmil,  which  clearly  belong  together.  In  the  former 
Svipdagr  calls  up  the  spirit  of  Gr6a,  his  mother;  in  the  latter 
he  comes  to  the  enchanted  abode  of  MengloS  and,  after  many 
questions  with  the  gatekeeper,  is  at  length  recognised  as  her 
destined  lover.  In  much  later  times  we  find  Swedish  and 
Danish  versions  of  the  same  story,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  it  is  really  a  folk-tale. 

The  purely  mythological  poems  of  the  Edda  are  followed  by 
VolundarkviSa,  which  gives  a  fairly  full  account  of  the  story  of 
Volundr  (Weland).  It  describes  how  Volundr  and  his  brothers 
obtained  as  their  wives  three  swan-maidens,  who  after  eight 
years  deserted  them.  Then  Volundr  is  captured  by  a  king 
named  NiSutSr,  hamstrung  and  compelled  to  work  as  his  smith. 
Volundr  executes  vengeance  on  the  king's  sons  and  daughter 
(BoSvildr)  and  then  flies  away. 

The  next  poem,  HelgakviSa  Hiorvart5ssonar,  gives  in  dialogue 
form  a  somewhat  complicated  story  of  the  adventures  of  a  king 
named  HiorvarSr  and  his  son  Helgi.  A  different  Helgi,  the  son 
of  Sigmundr,  is  the  subject  of  the  two  following  poems,  Helga- 
kviSur  Hundingsbana.  Both  poems  relate  how  the  hero  over- 
threw a  king  named  Hundingr  and  how  he  was  afterwards 
summoned  by  Sigrun,  the  daughter  of  Hogni,  to  save  her  from 
marriage  to  a  prince  named  HoSbroddr,  whom  she  detested. 
The  first  poem  ends  with  Helgi's  victory  over  Hogni  and 
HoSbroddr ;  but  the  second  goes  on  to  describe  how  Dagr,  the 
son  of  Hogni,  subsequently  slew  Helgi  in  revenge  for  his  father. 
Sinfiotli,  the  son  of  Sigmundr,  figures  in  both  poems,  but  SigurtSr 
is  not  mentioned. 

The  next  poem,  Gn'pisspd,  probably  a  late  work,  gives  a 
summary  of  the  adventures  of  SigurSr,  the  son  of  Sigmundr,  in 
the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  the  hero  and  his  uncle  Gri'pir, 


I]  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  1 3 

who  is  endowed  with  prophecy.  This  is  followed  by  three 
pieces  which  may  really  be  parts  of  one  original  poem.  The 
first  (commonly  called  Reginsmal)  relates  how  three  of  the 
gods,  Othin,  Hoenir  and  Loki,  killed  a  certain  Otr,  the  son  of 
Hrei?5marr.  Having  to  pay  compensation  to  the  father,  Loki 
robbed  a  dwarf,  named  Andvari,  of  his  gold.  Andvari  laid  a 
curse  on  the  gold,  and  HreitJmarr  was  soon  killed  by  his  own 
son  P'afnir,  who  subsequently  turned  into  a  serpents  Reginn, 
Fafnir's  brother,  betook  himself  to  SigurSr  and  became  his 
attendant.  The  poem  then  goes  on  to  describe  how  a  certain 
Hnikarr  (Othin)  guided  SigurSr  on  an  expedition  he  undertook 
against  the  sons  of  Hundingr.  In  the  next  piece  (Fafnismal) 
SigurSr  at  Reginn's  instigation  attacks  and  kills  Fafnir.  Then, 
finding  that  Reginn  is  plotting  treachery,  he  slays  him  also  and 
carries  off  Fafnir's  gold.  In  the  third  (Sigrdrifumal)  SigurSr 
finds  and  wakens  a  maid  named  Sigrdrifa,  a  valkyrie  who  has 
been  punished  by  Othin  with  an  enchanted  sleep.  She  imparts 
to  him  much  magical  lore ;  but  the  close  of  the  poem  is  lost 
owing  to  a  lacuna  in  the  MS. 

Of  the  following  nine  poems  six — SigurSarkviSa  I  (a  frag- 
ment), GuSrunarkviSa  I,  SigurSarkviSa  II  {liin  skamma),  GuSrii- 
narkviSa  II  {hiti  fornd),  AtlakviSa  and  Atlamal — deal  with 
practically  the  same  events  as  the  Nibelungenlied.  But  unfor- 
tunately, owing  to  the  lacuna  in  the  MS,  several  poems  at  the 
beginning  of  the  series  have  been  lost.  Hence  in  order  to  obtain 
a  full  account  of  the  story  it  is  necessary  to  refer  to  the  Volsunga 
Saga  (see  below),  which  used  the  lost  poems  as  well  as  the 
others. 

The  chief  variations  from  the  German  version  of  the  story 
are  as  follows :  (i)  Sigmundr  has  been  killed  before  the  birth  of 
SigurSr  (Siegfried)  by  the  sons  of  Hundingr.  (ii)  The  wife  of 
SigurSr  is  called  GuSriin,  Grimhildr  being  the  name  of  her  mother 
and  Giiiki  that  of  her  father,  (iii)  Brynhildr  is  the  sister  of  Atli 
(Etzel).     In  several  authorities^  she  is  identified  with  the  valkyrie 

^  Called  a  dragon  {dreki)  in  Volsunga  Saga. 

^  HelreitS  Brynh.  (str.  7  ff.)  and  the  prose  versions  (Skaldsk.  41,  Vols.  S.  20).  It 
is  a  much  debated  question  whether  the  two  are  identified  also  in  Fafnismal,  str.  40  ff. 
In  Gripisspa  they  seem  clearly  to  be  separated. 


14  EARLY  TEUTONIC  POETRY  [CHAP. 

of  Sigrdri'fumdl,  and  it  is  stated  that  she  and  SigurtSr  had  ex- 
changed vows  of  love ;  but  Sigurt5r's  love  was  subsequently- 
turned  to  Gu?5run  through  a  magic  potion  given  him  by  Gn'm- 
hildr.  (iv)  Hogni  (Hagen)  is  the  brother  of  Gunnarr  (Gunther); 
and  in  place  of  Gemot  and  Giselher  there  is  another  brother 
named  Guthormr.  It  is  the  last-named  who  actually  kills 
SigurSr,  and  he  is  himself  killed  by  the  dying  man.  Brynhildr 
then  puts  herself  to  death  and  is  burned  with  SigurSr.  (v)  The 
death  of  Gunnarr  and  Hogni  is  attributed  to  Atli.  GuSriin  on  the 
other  hand  warns  her  brothers  of  the  treachery  awaiting  them, 
and  subsequently  avenges  their  deaths  by  killing  Atli  and  the 
children  he  had  had  by  her. 

Interspersed  among  these  poems  are  three  others  connected 
with  the  same  story,  but  dealing  with  incidents  unknown  to  the 
German  version.  The  HelreiS  Brynhildar  describes  how  Bryn- 
hildr on  her  way  to  Hell  encounters  a  giantess,  to  whom  she 
tells  the  story  of  her  life.  GuSrunarkviSa  HI  relates  how 
GuSrun  was  accused  to  Atli  of  adultery  with  ThioSrekr,  but 
established  her  innocence  by  the  ordeal.  In  Oddrunargrdtr  a 
sister  of  Atli  named  Oddrun  comes  to  Borgny,  the  daughter  of 
a  certain  Heit5rekr,  to  relieve  her  in  her  travail,  and  gives  an 
account  of  the  relations  between  herself,  Brynhildr  and  Gunnarr. 

The  last  two  poems — GuSrunarhvot  and  HamSismal — are 
concerned  with  the  story  of  the  attack  upon  lormunrekr  (Her- 
manaricus),  to  Jordanes'  account  of  which  we  have  already 
alluded  (p.  lo).  Here  the  story  is  connected  with  the  preceding 
poems^  by  the  fact  that  Svanhildr  (Sunilda)  is  represented  as 
the  daughter  of  GuSrun  and  SigurSr,  while  HamSir  and  Sorli 
(Ammius  and  Sarus)  are  said  to  be  the  sons  of  GuSrun  and  a 
certain  lonakr,  whom  she  had  married  after  Atli's  death.  In 
the  first  poem  GuSrun  incites  her  sons  to  avenge  their  sister 
and  then  bewails  her  many  misfortunes.  The  second  describes 
the  actual  fighting,  preceded  however  by  the  account  of  a  quarrel 
in  which  Erpr,  a  stepson  of  GuSrun,  is  killed  by  his  half- 
brothers.     To  his  death  is  attributed  the  fact  that  lormunreky'' 

1  The  death  of  Svanhildr  is  mentioned  also  in  Sigur'SarkviSa  II,  where  it  is 
attributed  (as  in  the  prose  authorities)  to  the  evil  counsel  of  a  certain  Bikki,  an 
adviser  of  lormunrekr. 


I]  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  1 5 

was  able  to  survive  the  onslaught,  though  he  lost  both  hands 
and  both  feet. 

The  prose  Edda  (Skaldskaparmal,  cap.  43)  contains  a  poem, 
Grottasongr,  which  gives  the  story  of  two  giant  maidens  who 
had  to  grind  gold  and  peace  for  the  Danish  king  Fr6t5i.  At  the 
end  there  is  an  allusion  to  Halfdan  and  Hrolfr  Kraki  (see  below). 
Besides  this  we  have,  both  in  the  prose  Edda  and  elsewhere,  a 
number  of  fragments  of  poems,  some  of  which  refer  to  SigurSr 
and  his  family  and  some  to  other  stories.  Among  the  latter 
mention  may  be  made  especially  of  a  poem  Biarkamdl,  which 
celebrated  the  achievements  of  the  Danish  king  Hrolfr  Kraki 
and  the  heroism  of  his  retinue  in  the  battle  wherein  he  lost  his 
life.  In  Hervarar  Saga  large  portions  of  an  early  poem  relating 
to  the  Goths  and  Huns  have  been  preserved. 

In  addition  to  the  poems  enumerated  above,  all  of  which  are 
anonymous,  we  have  also  a  number  of  works  by  known  poets. 
Most  of  these  deal  either  wholly  or  in  part  with  contemporary 
persons  and  events.  The  earliest  date  from  the  ninth  century 
and  are  of  Norwegian  origin.  Probably  the  oldest  of  all  are  the 
fragments  of  Bragi  Boddason,  the  chief  of  which  is  a  description 
of  his  shield  (Ragnarsdrdpa).  From  the  reign  of  Harold  the 
Fair-haired  several  poems  are  known,  though  nearly  all  of  them 
are  in  a  very  fragmentary  condition.  Among  them  may  be  men- 
tioned especially  the  Ynglingatal  of  ThioSolfr  of  Hvi'n,  a  genea- 
logical poem  which  traces  the  descent  of  Rognvaldr,  a  cousin  of 
Harold,  from  the  ancient  kings  of  the  Swedes  and  the  god  Frey. 
Another  famous  work  by  the  same  poet  was  the  Haustlong, 
which  dealt  with  mythological  subjects.  Next  perhaps  in 
importance  to  ThioSolfr  was  Thorbiorn  Hornklofi,  from  whom 
we  have  fragments  of  two  poems  (Hrafnsmdl  and  Glymdrdpa), 
celebrating  the  exploits  of  Harold.  Somewhat  later  we  hear  of 
a  poet  named  GoSSormr  Sindri,  who  is  known  chiefly  from  the 
remains  of  a  work  (Hdkonardrdpa)  in  honour  of  Haakon  I.  A 
famous  fragment  (Eireksmil)  by  an  unknown  poet,  dating  from 
shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century,  celebrates  the 
death  of  King  Eiri'kr  BloSox  and  his  reception  by  Othin  in 
Valhalla.  From  this  is  copied  the  Hakonarmdl  of  Eyvindr 
Skaldaspillir,  celebrating  the  death  of  Haakon  I  at  the  battle  of 


l6  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

Fitje  (a.d.  961).  The  same  poet  also  composed  a  genealogical 
poem  (Haleygiatal)  in  imitation  of  Ynglingatal.  In  it  he  traced 
the  ancestry  of  Haakon,  earl  of  Lade,  who  ruled  Norway  from 
about  975  to  995,  back  through  the  kings  of  Hdlogaland  to 
Othin  and  SkaSi. 

From  this  time  onwards  the  cultivation  of  poetry  seems  to 
have  been  almost  entirely  limited  to  Icelanders,  many  of  whom 
resided  largely  at  the  courts  of  various  Scandinavian  kings. 
Among  them  the  most  noteworthy  and  almost  the  earliest  was 
Egill  Skallagn'msson,  who  lived  from  about  900  to  982.  He  is 
known  chiefly  from  the  HofuSlausn,  composed  for  Eirikr  BloSox 
in  England,  the  Arinbiarnardripa,  in  honour  of  his  friend 
Arinbiorn,  and  the  Sonatorrek,  an  elegy  over  one  of  his  sons. 
Of  his  younger  contemporaries  perhaps  the  best  known  are 
Kormakr  Ogmundarson  and  Einarr  Helgason.  The  latter  is 
famous  chiefly  for  his  poem  Vellekla,  in  which  he  celebrated 
the  exploits  of  Earl  Haakon.  Many  other  distinguished  poets 
flourished  during  the  following  half  century — down  to  the  time 
of  Harold  III  (HarSrdtSi) — but  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  discuss 
their  works. 

By  the  time  of  Harold  III  the  composition  of  prose  narra- 
tives or  sagas  (sogur)  had  already  begun  to  be  cultivated  by 
Icelanders,  though  it  was  not  until  towards  the  end  of  the 
following  century  that  they  were  first  committed  to  writing. 
Many  sagas  are  based  on  old  narrative  poems ;  as  for  instance 
Ynglinga  Saga,  which  is  largely  a  paraphrase  and  expansion  of 
Ynglingatal.  Volsunga  Saga,  which  gives  the  stories  of  Helgi, 
SigurtJr,  GutSriin  and  Svanhildr,  is  derived  mainly  from  the 
poems  of  the  Edda,  though  it  has  used  other  materials.  The 
earlier  part,  dealing  with  Sigmundr  and  his  ancestors  seems  to 
have  drawn  upon  some  lost  poems.  In  Sbrla  Thattr^  we  meet 
with  a  story — found  also  in  the  prose  Edda  (Skaldsk.  50)  and 
alluded  to  in  Bragi's  Ragnarsdrapa — which  is  clearly  connected 
with  that  of  the  first  part  of  the  German  poem  Kudrun.  Hildr, 
the  daughter  of  Hogni,  is  carried  ofi"  in  her  father's  absence  by 
his  friend  HetSinn.  They  are  overtaken  and  a  battle  follows,  in 
which  all  the  combatants  are  killed.  Hildr  by  magic  spells 
^  Fomaldar  Sogur  Not'Srlanda,  i  p.  391  ff. 


l]  EARLY   TEUTONIC   POETRY  1 7 

rouses  the  slain  each  night  to  renew  the  battle.  In  Hr61fs 
Saga  Kraka  we  have  an  account  of  the  Danish  kings  Helgi  and 
Hroarr,  the  sons  of  Halfdan,  and  of  Helgi's  son,  Hr61fr  Kraki, 
which  seems  to  be  derived  ultimately  from  old  poems  like 
Biarkamal.  Certain  incidents  in  the  story,  such  as  Hrolfr's 
dealings  with  the  Swedish  king  ASils,  are  related  also  in  other 
sagas.  The  same  characters  figured  prominently  in  Skioldunga 
Saga,  of  which  we  have  little  except  an  abridged  Latin  trans- 
lation. This  saga  also  related  at  length  the  stories  of  Haraldr 
Hilditonn,  Sigurt5r  Hringr  and  Ragnarr  Lot5br6k,  parts  of  which 
are  known  also  from  other  sources,  especially  Ragnars  Saga 
LoSbrokaj  and  the  Thdttr  af  LoSbrokar  sonum. 

Among  Latin  authorities  the  most  important  is  the  great  7 
Danish  History  {Gesta  Danornni)  of  Saxo  Grammaticus,  which 
dates  from  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  and  contains  metrical 
translations  or  paraphrases  of  many  old  poems.  Of  these  perhaps 
the  most  noteworthy  are  the  Biarkamdl  and  some  of  the  poems 
attributed  to  Starkat5r  (Starcatherus),  particularly  those  ad- 
dressed to  Ingialdr  (Ingellus).  Here  also  we  find  a  detailed 
account  of  the  tragic  story  of  HagbarSr  and  Signy,  which  is 
very  frequently  alluded  to  in  Old  Norse  poetry.  HagbartSr 
belonged  to  a  family  which  was  involved  in  vendetta  with  the 
Danish  king  Sigarr.  But  having  fallen  in  love  with  Signy,  the 
king's  daughter,  he  visited  her  disguised  as  a  woman — an  adven- 
ture which  ended  in  his  being  discovered  and  condemned  to 
death.  Signy  and  all  her  maidens  destroyed  themselves  when 
he  was  led  to  the  gallows.  Many  other  stories  are  given  entirely 
in  prose,  among  them  those  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni,  lormunrekr 
and  Helgi  Hundingsbani,  though  no  mention  is  made  of  Sig- 
mundr  or  Sigurt5r.  The  adventures  also  of  Haraldr  Hilditonn 
and  Ragnarr  LoSbrok  are  related  at  considerable  length.  Lastly, 
we  may  mention  a  story  which  is  not  recorded  by  any  Icelandic 
authority,  namely  that  of  the  single  combat  fought  by  Uffo  the 
son  of  Wermundus.     It  deserves  notice  here  on  account  of  its 


obvious  identity  with  the  English  story  of  Offa. 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  reviewed  briefly  the 
secular  narrative  poetry  produced  by  the  various  Teutonic 
peoples  down  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  century.     In  the  case  of 


1 8  EARLY   TEUTONIC    POETRY  [CHAP.  I 

works  by  historical  Norwegian  and  Icelandic  poets,  owing  to 
the  abundance  of  material,  we  have  restricted  ourselves  to  men- 
tioning only  the  leading  names.  Elsewhere  we  have  endeavoured 
to  give  a  more  or  less  complete  summary.  On  the  other  hand, 
among  works  dating  from  later  than  the  tenth  century,  we  have 
taken  into  consideration  only  those  which  are  concerned  with 
stories  of  ancient  times.  The  stories  themselves  will  be  discussed 
in  the  following  chapters. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   HEROIC   AGE    OF   THE   TEUTONIC    PEOPLES. 

It  will  not  have  escaped  notice  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  stories  described  or  alluded  to  in  the  preceding  chapter  are 
found  in  the  literature  of  more  than  one  nation.  The  most 
casual  reader  could  not  fail  to  observe  the  identity  of  the  story 
of  SigurSr  and  GuSrun,  as  given  in  the  Edda  and  Volsunga 
Saga,  with  that  of  Siegfried  and  Kriemhild  related  in  the 
Nibelungenlied.  Equally  obvious  is  the  connection  between  the 
story  of  lormunrekr  and  Svanhildr  in  the  same  Scandinavian 
authorities  and  that  of  Hermanaricus  and  Sunilda  given  by 
Jordanes.  A  still  closer  resemblance  is  furnished  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  poem  Waldhere  and  the  German-Latin  Waltharius. 
The  connection  between  the  German  poem  Kudrun  and  the 
Scandinavian  story  of  HetSinn  and  Hogni  is  perhaps  less  striking, 
but  not  open  to  question.  The  brief  references  to  the  story  of 
Weland  and  Beaduhild  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem  Deor  are 
quite  sufficient  to  prove  its  substantial  identity  with  that  told  in 
VolundarkviSa. 

In  other  cases  the  same  characters  appear,  though  the 
incidents  related  are  different.  Eormenric  (Ermenrich)  is  a 
prominent  figure  in  Anglo-Saxon  and  German  poetry,  as  well  as 
in  Scandinavian  and  Gothic  records.  The  Wudga  and  Hama  of 
Widsith  (Waldhere  and  Beowulf)  and  the  Theodric  of  Waldhere 
are  clearly  identical  with  the  Witege,  Heime  and  Dietrich  von 
Bern  of  the  German  epics,  while  Theodric  figures  also,  though 
not  prominently,  in  the  Edda.  Of  all  the  Edda  poems^  those 
which  show  the  least  connection  with  non-Scandinavian  poetry 
are  the  three  HelgakviSur.     Yet  Sinfiotli,  as  well  as  Sigmundr, 

^  Except  of  course  those  which  deal  only  with  supernatural  beings  (p.  ii  f.). 


20  THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

is  mentioned  in  Beowulf  (under  the  form  Fitela)  and  there  are 
traces  that  his  name  was  once  known  in  Germany. 

We  may  observe  that  in  Beowulf  it  is  only  the  persons 
mentioned  in  casual  references  and  in  episodes  lying  outside  the 
main  action  of  the  story,  such  as  Sigemund,  Eormenric,  Hama 
and  Weland,  to  whom  we  find  allusions  in  German  poetry.  On 
the  other  hand  most  of  the  chief  characters  of  the  poem  are  well 
known  from  Scandinavian  records,  though  not  in  connection 
with  precisely  the  same  incidents.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  Danish  kings  Healfdene,  his  sons  Hrothgar  and 
Halga,  and  Hrothwulf  the  nephew  and  colleague  of  Hrothgar, 
with  Halfdan,  his  sons  Hroarr  and  Helgi  and  Helgi's  son,  the 
famous  Hrolfr  Kraki — all  likewise  kings  of  the  Danes.  Equally 
obvious  is  the  identity  of  the  Swedish  prince  Eadgils  the  son  of 
Ohthere  with  ASils  the  son  of  Ottarr  in  Ynglingatal,  while  his 
uncle  and  opponent  Onela  is  clearly  the  same  person  as  A?5ils' 
opponent  AH,  although  the  latter  is  represented  as  a  Norwegian 
in  Old  Norse  literature.  Further,  the  episode  in  which  Ingeld  is 
incited  by  an  old  warrior  to  avenge  his  father  Froda  is  evidently 
to  be  connected  with  certain  poems  given  by  Saxo,  in  which  the 
old  warrior  Starcatherus  rouses  Ingellus  to  avenge  his  father 
Frotho.  Among  other  persons  mentioned  in  the  poem  Scyld  is 
doubtless  to  be  identified  with  the  Skioldr  of  Scandinavian 
tradition  ;  probably  also  Heremod  with  the  HermoSr  of  Hynd- 
lulioS  and  Weoxtan  with  the  Vdsteinn  of  the  Kalfsvi'sa\  To  the 
identification  of  Beowulf  himself  with  the  Biarki  of  Scandinavian 
tradition,  which  is  doubted  by  some  scholars,  we  shall  have  to 
return  later. 

The  characters  of  the  Finn  fragment  are  much  less  easy  to 
trace  elsewhere.  Two  of  Hnaef's  warriors  named  Ordlaf  and 
Guthlaf  are  probably  to  be  identified  with  two  Danish  princes, 
Oddlevus  and  Gunnlevus,  mentioned  in  Skioldunga  Saga  ;  but 
there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Sigeferth  is  identical  with  SigurSr 
the  son  of  Sigmundr.  In  Widsith  however  we  find  a  large  number 
of  persons  who  are  well  known  from  Continental  and  Scandinavian 
authorities.  Besides  Eormenric,  Wudga,  Hama,  Offa,  Hrothgar, 
Hrothwulf    and    Ingeld,   of   whom   we   have    already   spoken, 

^  Quoted  in  the  prose  Edda  (Skaldskaparmal,  cap.  66). 


II]  THE   HEROIC   AGE  21 

we  hear  of  Aetla,  king  of  the  Huns  (Atli,  Etzel),  Guthhere  and 
Gifeca,  kings  of  the  Burgundians  (i.e.  the  Gunnarr  and  Giuki  of 
the  Edda),  and  Sigehere,  king  of  the  Danes  (i.e.  probably  Sigarr, 
the  father  of  Signy),  as  well  as  the  Goths  Eastgota  the  father  of 
Unwine  (i.e.  Jordanes'  Ostrogotha  the  father  of  Hunwil),  Becca 
(probably  Bikki,  the  evil  counsellor  of  lormunrekr)  and  the 
Herelingas,  Emerca  and  Fridla,  who  are  doubtless  to  be  identified 
with  the  Embrica  and  Fritla,  nephews  of  Eormenric,  mentioned 
in  the  Annals  of  Quedlinburg  and  elsewhere.  It  is  more  than 
probable  also  that  in  v.  21  :  "  Hagena  ruled  the  Holmryge  and 
Heoden  (MS.  Henden)  the  Glommas,"  we  have  an  allusion  to  the 
story  of  HetJinn  and  Hogni  (the  Hetel  and  Hagen  of  Kudrun). 
We  may  compare  a  passage  of  Deor  (v.  35  ff.)  which  tells  of 
a  skilful  minstrel  of  the  Heodeningas  -named  Heorrenda,  pre- 
sumably the  Horand  of  the  German  poem. 

These  instances,  though  far  from  exhaustive,  will  be  sufficient 
to  show  that  the  same  characters  recur  again  and  again  in  the 
early  narrative  poetry  of  the  various  Teutonic  peoples.  In  the 
last  nineteen  poems  of  the  Older  Edda  (viz.  those  which  deal 
with  human  beings)  there  is  but  one  (Helgakvit5a  Hiorvart5ssonar) 
which  introduces  no  characters  known  elsewhere.  Among  the 
early  Anglo-Saxon  poems  treated  on  p.  i  ff.  we  find  no  such 
case,  and  the  same  is  probably  true  of  the  German  poems 
discussed  on  pp.  5,  7  ff.  With  the  later  Anglo-Saxon  poems 
(p.  3)  and  the  German  historical  poems  of  the  ninth  and 
following  centuries  the  case  is  quite  otherwise.  The  exploits  of 
Aethelstan  and  Byrhtnoth  are  celebrated  only  in  English  poems, 
those  of  Ludwig  III  and  other  German  princes  only  in  the 
poetry  of  their  own  country.  So  also  with  the  skaldic  poems 
of  the  North.  If  these  introduce  any  personal  names  known 
in  the  poetry  of  England  or  Germany  they  are  names,  like 
Sigmundr  and  HermoSr,  derived  from  earlier  poems  and  not 
belonging  to  contemporary  persons.  Similarly  neither  English 
nor  German  poetry  celebrates  the  deeds  of  Eiri'kr  BloSox  or 
Haakon  the  Good, 

The  phenomena  noted  above  seem  to  indicate  that  the  poetic 
cycles  with  which  we  have  been  dealing  have  a  common  origin 
or  at  least  that  there  was  a  considerable  amount  of  borrowing 


22  THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

between  poets  of  different  nations.  In  order  however  to  be 
able  to  form  an  opinion  on  this  point  it  is  necessary  first  to 
consider  the  following  questions  :  (i)  how  far  the  characters  and 
incidents  of  these  poems  are  to  be  regarded  as  historical,  (ii)  to 
what  period  or  periods  of  history  they  belong.  We  may  note  in 
passing  that  no  doubt  need  be  entertained  as  to  the  historical  basis 
of  the  later  group  of  Anglo-Saxon  poems,  of  German  poems  such 
as  the  Ludwigslied  or  of  the  Northern  skaldic  poems — however 
much  the  true  facts  may  be  obscured  by  poetic  embellishments. 
It  is  clear  enough  that  some  of  the  characters  of  the  common 
cycles  are  historical  persons.  Thus  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Aetla  (Atli,  Etzel),  king  of  the  Huns,  is  the  famous  Hunnish  king 
Attila  who  died  in  453.  Again  the  Burgundian  king  Guthhere 
(Gunnarr,  Gunther),  who  plays  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  stories 
of  Waldhere  and  SigurSr-Siegfried,  is  clearly  identical  with  the 
historical  Burgundian  king  Gundicarius  (Gundaharius),  whose 
defeat  in  435  by  the  Roman  general  Aetius  is  recorded  by  con- 
temporary writers.  Of  his  end  Prosper  says  only  that  the  Huns 
destroyed  him  together  with  his  family  and  nation \  and  some 
scholars  have  denied  that  Attila  had  any  part  in  this  eventl  But 
our  knowledge  of  the  course  of  events  on  or  beyond  the  Roman 
frontier  at  this  period  is  too  slight  to  justify  any  confident  state- 
ment on  such  a  point.  Of  the  other  members  of  the  Burgundian 
royal  family  Gifeca  (Giiiki)  and  Gislhere  (Giselher)  are  mentioned 
in  the  laws  of  King  Gundobad  who  died  in  the  year  516^ 

'  Theodosio  xv  et  Valentiniano  iv  coss.  (a.d.  435):  pax  facta  cum  Vandalis... 
eodem  tempore  Gundicarium  Burgundionum  regevi  intra  Gallias  habitantem  Aetius 
bello  oblriuit,  pacemque  ei  supplicanti  dedit,  qua  non  diu  potitus  est.  siquidem  ilium 
Hunni  cum  populo  atque  stirpe  sua  deleuerunt. 

^  The  overthrow  of  Guthhere  is  ascribed  to  Attila  by  Paulus  Diaconus  in  his 
Gesta  episc.  Mettensium  (Mon.  Germ.,  Scr.  \\  p.  262),  Hist.  Misc.  XIV  (Muratori,  Scr.  I 
p.  97) ;  but  he  is  a  late  authority.  On  the  other  hand  an  anonymous  Gaulish  chronicle, 
which  ends  in  the  year  452,  attributes  the  whole  of  the  Burgiuidian  disasters  to  Aetius  : 
bellum  contra  Burgundionum  gentem  memorabile  exarsit  quo  uniuersa  pene  gens  cum 
rege per  Aeiium  deleta  (Mon.  Germ.,  Chron.  Min.  I  660).  But  this  seems  to  be  due  to 
the  confusion  of  two  events  which  Prosper  clearly  distinguishes  (cf.  Idatius,  Chron., 
Theodosii  ann.  Xii,  XIll). 

*  Liber  Legum  Gundebati,  cap.  3  (Mon.  Germ.,  Leg.,  Vol.  III  p.  533):  si  quos 
apud  regiae  memoriae  auctores  nostras,  id  est  Gebicam,  Godomarem,  Gislaharium, 
Gundaharium,  patretn  quoque  nostrum  et patruum,  liberos  liberasue  fuisse  consliterit, 
in  eadem  libertate permaneant. 


it]  the  heroic  age  2$ 

The  Gothic  king  Eormenric  (Hermanaricus,  lormunrekr)  is 
another  doubtless  historical  character.  The  account  of  him 
given  by  Jordanes  seems  indeed  to  be  derived  from  tradition, 
handed  down  probably  in  poetic  form  ;  but  the  statement  that 
he  took  his  own  life  through  fear  of  the  Huns  is  confirmed 
by  the  strictly  contemporary  writer  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
(xxxi.  3.  i),  from  whom  we  gather  that  the  event  took  place 
shortly  after  370.  He  also  states  that  Eormenric  was  a  most 
warlike  king  and  feared  by  the  surrounding  nations  on  account 
of  his  many  brave  deeds. 

In  Dietrich  von  Bern  (the  Theodric  of  Waldhere  and  the 
ThioSrekr  of  the  Edda)  we  certainly  have  reminiscences  of  the 
Ostrogothic  king  Theodoric  who  ruled  Italy  from  489  to  526. 
The  statement  in  the  Hildebrandslied  that  he  fled  from  the 
hostility  of  Ottachar  and  the  story  of  the  Rabenschlacht  recall 
his  campaigns  with  Odoacer,  which  culminated  in  the  surrender 
of  Ravenna  in  493.  But  it  cannot  possibly  be  true  that  he  was 
present  at  Attila's  court,  where  we  find  him  in  the  Edda  and 
in  German  poetry,  much  less  that  he  had  any  dealings  with 
Eormenric.  The  former  mistake  is  generally  attributed  to 
confusion  between  Dietrich  and  his  father  Dietmar  (Thiudemer), 
who  is  known  to  have  been  with  Attila.  The  other  error 
however  is  more  difficult  to  account  for  and  will  require  to  be 
discussed  later. 

It  is  commonly  held  that  in  the  poems  dealing  with 
Wolfdietrich^  the  hero  and  his  father  Hugdietrich  represent  a 
confusion  of  the  Prankish  kings  Theodberht  (r.  534 — 548)  and 
his  father  Theodric  I  (r.  511 — 534).  In  this  case  however  it 
must  be  confessed  that  the  resemblances  are  extremely  slight. 
The  application  of  the  name  Hugo  Theodoricus  to  Theodric  I 
in  the  Annals  of  Quedlinburg  cannot  at  best  prove  more  than  that 
the  chronicler  identified  the  two. 

The  identification  of  characters  which  figure  in  stories 
relating  to  the  northern  kingdoms  is  naturally  more  difficult, 
since    references    to    such    persons    by    contemporary    Roman 

1  This  cycle  is  supposed  to  have  been  known  in  England  at  one  time,  owing  to 
the  juxtaposition  of  the  names  Seafola  (Saben)  and  Theodric  in  Widsith,  v.  115. 
Theodric,  king  of  the  Franks,  is  mentioned  in  the  same  poem  (v.  ■24). 


t 


24  THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

historians  are  extremely  rare.  One  safe  instance  however  is 
furnished  by  the  incident,  referred  to  several  times  in  Beowulf,  of 
Hygelac's  disastrous  expedition  against  the  Franks  and  Frisians. 
Gregory  of  Tours  (ni  3)  and  the  Gesta  Francorum  (cap.  19) 
mention  a  very  serious  raid  on  the  lower  Rhine  by  a  king  of  the 
Danes  named  Chocilaicus,  which  ended  in  his  defeat  and  death 
through  the  arrival  of  an  army  under  Theodberht.  The  Liber 
Monstrorum  (I,  cap.  3^),  a  work  of  perhaps  the  seventh  century, 
states  that  the  bones  of  a  certain  Getarum  rex  Huiglaucus,  who 
had  been  slain  by  the  Franks,  were  preserved  on  an  island  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rhine.  There  can  be  no  question  that  the  person 
referred  to  in  these  passages  is  the  Hygelac  of  Beowulf  The 
date  of  the  expedition,  though  not  precisely  fixed  by  any 
authority,  may  safely  be  placed  within  a  few  years  of  520. 

Most  of  the  Danish  and  Swedish  princes  common  to  Beowulf 
and  the  Northern  authorities  are  now  generally  regarded  as 
historical  characters,  though  we  have  no  reference  to  them  in 
contemporary  documents.  It  is  to  be  noted  in  the  first  place 
that  though  the  persons  themselves  are  common  to  the  two 
traditions,  English  and  Northern,  they  are  not  as  a  rule 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  same  incidents.  Further, 
there  is  no  evidence  for  communication  between  England  and 
the  Baltic  during  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  This  renders 
it  probable  that  the  two  records  go  back  independently  to  a 
time  at  which  persons  who  remembered  Hygelac's  younger 
contemporaries  might  still  be  alive. 

Lastly  a  few  words  must  be  said  with  regard  to  the  stories  of 
Haraldr  Hilditonn,  SigurtJr  Hringr  and  Ragnarr  Lot5br6k.  The 
sons  of  LotJbrok  are  well  known  from  contemporary  historical 
documents  through  their  piratical  expeditions,  more  especially 
the  great  invasion  of  England  in  866.  Moreover,  though 
the  references  to  Lot5br6k  himself  are  rare  and  doubtful, 
it  is  clear  enough  that  the  king  Ella  who  is  said  to  have  put 
him  to  death  was  the  Northumbrian  usurper  Aella,  who  reigned 
from  863  to  867.  Loc5br6k's  father  SigurSr  Hringr  has  been 
identified  with  a  certain  Sigifridus  whose  conflict  with  another 
Danish  king  named  Anulo  is  recorded  in  a  number  of  Latin 
1  Cf.  Berger  de  Xivrey,  Traditions  T^ratologiques,  p.  1 2. 


II]  THE   HEROIC   AGE  2$ 

chronicles  under  the  year  812,  and  Anulo  himself  with  that 
Oli  who  is  represented  as  Sigurt5r's  ally  at  the  battle  of  Brdvi'k. 
Lastly,  it  has  been  suggested  that  a  reference  to  Haraldr 
Hilditonn  may  quite  possibly  be  preserved  in  the  description  of 
Anulo  as  nepos  Herioldi  quondam  regis^ ;  for  according  to  Saxo 
(p.  250)  Oil  was  the  son  of  Haraldr's  sister  and  eventually 
succeeded  him  on  the  Danish  throne. 

The  above  identifications^  are  sufficient  to  show  that  historical  I 
characters  are  introduced  into  most  of  the  stories  with  which 
we  have  been  dealing.  Further — and  this  is  a  very  remarkable 
fact — apart  from  the  last  cycles  embracing  Haraldr  Hilditonn 
and  Ragnarr  LoSbrok,  which  are  entirely  confined  to  Northern 
literature,  all  the  historical  personages  whom  we  have  been  able 
to  identify  belong  to  a  period  extending  over  barely  two 
centuries.  Eormenric  flourished  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth 
century,  Attila  and  the  Burgundian  kings  in  the  first  half  of  the 
fifth ;  Theodric  towards  the  end  of  the  same  century  and  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  sixth.  Hygelac  again  was  a  contemporary 
of  Theodric ;  while  Wolfdietrich,  if  he  is  rightly  identified  with 
Theodberht,  died  in  548.  In  the  stories  which  form  the  common 
themes  of  English,  German  and  Scandinavian  poets  we  find  no 
mention  of  historical  persons  who  lived  after  the  middle  of  the 
sixth  century. 

Now  it  will  be  clear  that  the  cycles  of  stories  dealing  with 
Ragnarr  LoSbrok  and  his  ancestors  are  really,  like  the  skaldic 
poems,  to  be  compared  with  German  and  English  works  such 
as  the  Ludwigslied  and  the  poem  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh. 
The  difference  in  tone  is  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  social 
conditions  of  the  Viking  Age,  which  were  wholly  different  from 
those  which  prevailed  in  the  Christian  kingdoms. 

The  statement  that  the  common  cycles  of  tradition  mention 
no  historical  characters  later  than  about  550  ought  perhaps  to  be 
qualified  in  one  case.     Paulus  Diaconus  {Hist.  Lang,  l  27)  says 

^  Einhardi  Ann.,  812  (Mon.  Germ.,  Scr.  I  p.  199).  Prof.  Olrik  {Nordisches 
Geistesleben,  p.  44)  apparently  rejects  this  identification,  as  he  places  Haraldr 
Hilditonn  not  long  after  the  time  of  Hrolfr  Kraki. 

^  The  list  makes  no  claim  to  completeness.  Thus  several  of  the  characters  in 
Hervarar  Saga  (probably  mentioned  also  in  Widsith,  v.  ii6fif.)  have  been  identified 
with  historical  persons  of  the  fifth  century.     But  the  evidence  is  far  from  satisfactory. 


26  THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

that  the  praises  of  Alboin,  king  of  the  Langobardi,  who  died  in 
572  (or  573),  were  sung  by  the  Saxons,  Bavarians  and  other 
peoples;  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  his  account  of  certain 
incidents  in  Alboin's  career  is  derived  from  poetic  sources. 
Further,  we  find  the  generosity  of  the  same  king  celebrated  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  poem  Widsith,  where  he  is  apparently  the 
latest  person  mentioned.  Hence  there  is  some  ground  for 
including  him  among  the  characters  of  common  Teutonic 
poetry — which  will  involve  our  extending  the  lower  of  the 
chronological  limits  fixed  above  by  about  twenty  years.  Yet  it 
is  not  clear  that  Alboin  figured  in  any  poems  which  can  properly 
be  called  narrative,  except  perhaps  among  his  own  people. 

On  the  other  hand  some  of  the  Gothic  heroes  recorded  by 
Jordanes,  if  we  are  to  trust  his  chronology  at  all,  must  be  referred 
to  times  long  anterior  to  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century. 
Apart  from  Gothic  tradition  the  only  mention  of  any  of  these 
persons  occurs  in  a  brief  passage  in  Widsith  (v.  113  f.) :  "(I  have 
visited)  Eastgota,  the  wise  and  good  father  of  Unwine."  Now 
Ostrogotha  is  brought  by  Jordanes  into  connection  with  the 
Emperor  Philip  (v.  244-^249).  He  is  mentioned  also  by  Cassio- 
dorus  ( Var.  XI.  i)  as  one  of  the  ancestors  of  Amalasuintha  and 
as  a  prince  renowned  for  forbearance  (patientia).  In  spite  of  his 
suspicious  name  what  is  said  of  him  by  Jordanes  seems  to 
point  to  a  genuine  tradition.  But  if  so,  even  setting  aside  both 
the  reference  to  Philip  and  the  genealogy  given  by  Jordanes  in 
cap.  5,  he  is  probably  to  be  referred  to  a  time  anterior  to  the 
upper  limit  fixed  above.  Into  the  story  of  Filimer  and  the 
migration  we  need  not  enter,  as  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing 
it  to  be  anything  but  a  purely  Gothic  tradition.  The  story  of 
the  Langobardic  victory  over  the  Vandals  (cf  p.  10)  is  probably 
of  a  similar  character. 

There  remain  of  course  a  number  of  stories  which  contain 
no  names  of  persons  mentioned  in  contemporary  records.  The 
story  of  Finn  is  in  Beowulf  connected,  rather  loosely,  with 
Healfdene,  Hrothgar's  father.  Hence  if  the  incidents  which  it 
relates  are  to  be  regarded  as  historical,  they  must  be  dated 
somewhat  earlier,  though  certainly  not  more  than  a  century 
earlier,  than  Hygelac's  expedition.     The  story  of  Ofifa  and  his 


II]  THE    HEROIC   AGE  27 

father  Wermund  must  be  referred  to  a  still  earlier  period  if  we 
are  to  trust  the  evidence  of  the  M-ercian  genealogy  in  which 
these  persons  figure.  I  have  tried  elsewhere'  to  show  that  the 
Athislus,  who  in  Saxo's  version  of  the  story  appears  as  Wer- 
mund's  enemy,  is  probably  to  be  identified  with  the  Eadgils 
prince  of  the  Myrgingas  mentioned  in  Widsith.  The  latter  is 
represented  as  the  contemporary  of  Eormenric,  and  the  date 
thus  obtained  agrees  with  that  given  by  the  genealogy.  The 
story  of  Weland,  if  it  contains  any  historical  element,  should  be 
placed  perhaps  slightly  further  back  ;  for  in  Waldhere,  as  well 
as  in  many  German  authorities,  including  ThiSreks  Saga, 
Weland  is  said  to  be  the  father  of  Widia  ( Wudga,  Witege).  The 
latter  is  often  associated  with  Eormenric-,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  he  is  to  be  identified  with  the  Gothic  Vidigoia  who  is 
mentioned  as  a  hero  of  the  past  by  Jordanes  (cap.  34)  in  a 
quotation  from  Priscus^'.  For  the  story  of  Hagbart5r  and  Signy 
a  date  is  afforded  by  a  poem  attributed  by  Saxo  (p.  214)  to 
StarkaSr.  The  poet,  who  in  his  old  age  served  Ingellus, 
i.e.  Ingeld,  the  son-in-law  of  Hrothgar,  says  that  he  had  followed 
Haki,  the  brother  of  HagbarSr,  in  his  early  youth.  In  Ynglinga 
Saga  (cap.  23)  Haki  is  made  to  fight  with  the  Swedish  king 
lorundr,  four  generations  above  ASils,  but  this  genealogy  cannot 
be  entirely  correct. 

The  only  important  stories  which  remain  are  those  of  FroSi 
the  Peaceful  and  HeSinn  and  Hogni.  In  Saxo's  history 
(p.  I58ff.)  the  two  are  brought  into  connection  with  one  another, 
and  it  is  certainly  to  be  noted  that  a  Fruote  von  Tenemarke 
plays  rather  a  prominent  part  in  Kudrun,  especially  the  first 
portion.  But  FroSi  is  associated  with  different  sets  of  persons 
in  different  works,  and  his  resemblance  to  the  god  Frey  rather 
suggests  that  he  was  regarded  as  the  typical  representative  of 
a  Golden  Age  in  the  past.  The  story  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni  is 
very  difficult  to  locate,  both  in  regard  to  time  and  scene. 
Widsith  however,  which  is  our  earliest  authority  for  it,  represents 

^  The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.  134  f. 

2  But  also  with  Theodric.    This  is  a  question  to  which  we  shall  have  to  refer  later. 

3  Venimus  in  ilium  locum  ubi  dudum  Vidigoia,  Gothorum  fortissimus,  Sarmatuin 
dole  occubuit  (cf.  also  cap.  5). 


28  THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Hagena  (Hogni)  as  king  of  the  Holmryge,  who  appear  to  have 
dwelt  in  eastern  Pomerania.  Since  the  whole  of  the  south  coast 
of  the  Baltic  had  probably  become  Slavonic  by  the  end  of  the 
fifth  century,  it  is  at  all  events  unlikely  that  the  story  refers  to 
any  period  after  this. 

We  shall  have  to  discuss  later  how  far  these  stories  are  to  be 
regarded  as  historical  and  to  what  extent  the  characters  and 
incidents  with  which  they  deal  are  to  be  attributed  to  myth  or 
fiction.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  with  the  exception 
of  the  story  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni,  the  connections  of  which 
are  obscure,  all  the  stories  which  we  have  just  been  discussing 
are  referred  by  our  authorities  to  generations  anterior  to  the 
characters  of  Beowulf  Hence  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the 
period  embraced  by  the  common  poetry  and  traditions  of  the 
various  Teutonic  peoples — what  we  may  call  the  Heroic  Age  of 
these  peoples — had  come  to  an  end  by  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  or  at  least  by  the  death  of  Alboin.  Its  upper  limit 
must  in  view  of  the  evidence  given  above  be  set  from  two  to 
three  centuries  back — probably  three  centuries  if  we  include  the 
story  of  Ostrogotha. 

These  limitations  are  clearly  such  as  to  call  for  some  attempt 
at  explanation.  Why  do  the  cycles  of  story  which  are  common 
to  the  various  Teutonic  peoples  mention  no  historical  character 
later  than  Alboin  ?  Before  we  can  hope  to  give  a  satisfactory 
answer  to  this  question,  a  number  of  other  phenomena  will  have 
to  be  taken  into  account.  One  or  two  observations  however  will 
not  be  out  of  place  here. 

The  period  extending  backwards  from  two  to  three  centuries 
before  the  reign  of  Alboin  coincides  with  what  is  generally 
known  as  the  Age  of  National  Migrations  (Vblkerwanderungs- 
zeit).  It  was  during  this  period  that  many  of  the  Teutonic 
nations  broke  through  the  frontiers  of  the  Roman  empire  and 
carved  out  for  themselves  extensive  kingdoms  within  its  terri- 
tories. Among  these  were  the  realms  of  Guthhere  and  Theodric, 
and  in  part  also  that  of  Attila.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  all 
these  cases  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  provinces  brought  with 
it  a  great  accession  of  wealth  and  profoundly  affected  the  life  of 
the  invaders. 


II]  THE   HEROIC   AGE  29 

The  same  period  witnessed  the  conversion  of  most  of  the 
continental  Teutonic  peoples  to  Christianity,  another  change 
which  produced  far-reaching  effects  upon  them.  Yet  it  is  not 
clear  at  first  sight  how  this  change  is  connected  with  the  chrono- 
logical limitation  of  the  stories,  for  while  some  of  the  chief 
characters,  Attila  for  instance  and  doubtless  Eormenric,  were 
heathens,  others  such  as  Theodric  were  certainly  Christians. 
The  change  of  faith  is  not  a  motive  which  plays  any  part  in 
the  stories  themselves. 

Whatever  weight  we  may  be  disposed  to  attach  to  these 
observations,  it  should  be  noted  that  they  do  not  seem  to  apply 
to  every  case.  Thus  we  shall  see  in  the  course  of  the  next 
chapter  that  Danish  characters  figure  more  prominently  than 
those  of  any  other  nation,  not  only  in  Scandinavian  but  also  in 
English  records,  throughout  the  period  ending  with  Hrolfr 
Kraki.  Yet  the  Danes  took  no  part,  collectively  at  least,  in  the 
movements  against  the  Roman  Empire,  nor  did  Christianity 
penetrate  to  them  before  the  ninth  century.  It  is  worth  remark- 
ing therefore  that  stories  relating  to  Denmark  stop  where  they 
do,  and  that  for  centuries  after  the  time  of  Hrolfr  we  can  scarcely 
give  the  name  of  a  single  Danish  prince. 

In  the  following  chapters  it  will  be  convenient  to  speak  of 
the  period  which  we  have  been  discussing  simply  as  the  Heroic 
Age.  The  term  'heroic  poetry,'  as  a  translation  of  Helden- 
dichtung  or  Heltedigtning,  may  of  course  be  applied  in  a  sense 
to  such  works  as  Hdkonarmdl  or  the  poem  on  the  battle  of 
Maldon,  just  as  well  as  to  Beowulf  or  the  Hildebrandslied.  But 
no  ambiguity  will  arise  if  we  limit  the  term  'heroic'  here  to 
what  may  be  called  the  *  Teutonic '  Heroic  Age  (das  germa- 
nische  Heldenalter),  i.e.  to  the  period  embraced  by  the  common 
poetry  and  traditions  of  the  various  Teutonic  peoples. 


CHAPTER    III. 

SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY   IN   THE    HEROIC   STORIES. 

In  the  last  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  age  covered 
by  the  heroic  poetry  and  traditions  of  the  Teutonic  peoples 
coincides  with  a  clearly  marked  period  of  history,  extending 
over  about  two  or  possibly  three  hundred  years,  and  coming  to 
an  end  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century.  Something  must 
now  be  said  regarding  the  geographical  and  ethnographical 
limitations  of  the  stories — the  localities  in  which  the  scenes  are 
laid  and  the  nationalities  to  which  the  various  characters  be- 
longed. The  scenes  are  distributed  over  a  considerable  part  of 
Europe,  extending  from  Italy  to  Sweden  and  from  western 
Russia  to  the  Vosges  and  the  Netherlands.  The  British  Isles 
however  seem  to  have  lain  outside  the  area,  though  in  the  late 
form  in  which  some  of  the  stories  have  come  down  to  us,  we  do 
occasionally  find  references  to  them — generally  to  Scotland  or 
Ireland — which  are  probably  due  to  confusion  with  stories  of 
the  Viking  Age.  Indeed  it  is  remarkable  that  the  early  Anglo- 
Saxon  poems  contain  no  reference  to  persons  or  events  con- 
nected with  this  country.  Further,  except  possibly  in  the  case 
of  the  story  of  Hengest  and  Horsa,  we  have  no  evidence  worth 
consideration  that  poems  dealing  with  such  subjects  ever  existed. 
Norway  also  is  not  made  the  scene  of  any  of  the  main  stories, 
though  it  is  mentioned  incidentally  in  English  and  German  as 
well  as  Scandinavian  poems.  The  Balkan  peninsula  figures 
only  in  the  later  German  poems,  while  references  to  places  in 
Italy  are  limited  practically  to  the  Dietrich  (Theodric)  and 
Wolfdietrich  cycles. 


CHAP.  Ill]  SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY  3 1 

Turning  to  the  question  of  nationality  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing peoples  represented  :  (i)  to  the  Goths  belong  Eormenric, 
Theodric,  Wudga  (Witege)  and  probably  most  of  the  heroes 
associated  with  them ;  (ii)  to  the  Huns  Attila ;  (iii)  to  the 
Burgundians  Guthhere  and  his  family ;  (iv)  to  the  Rugii  ap- 
parently Hagena  (Hogni),  the  father  of  Hild  ;  (v)  to  the  Franks 
Hugdietrich  and  Wolfdietrich,  if  the  identifications  are  correct ; 
(vi)  to  the  Frisians  Finn  ;  (vii)  to  the  Angli  Wermund  and  Offa; 
(viii)  to  the  Danes  (a)  Fr6?5i  the  Peaceful,  (d)  Sigarr  and  his 
family,  together  probably  with  HagbarSr  and  Haki,  (c)  Hrolfr 
Kraki  and  his  family,  perhaps  also  Froda  (Frotho  IV)  and 
Ingeld;  (ix)  to  the  Gotar  Hygelac,  Beowulf  and  their  relatives; 
(x)  to  the  Swedes  (Svear)  ASils  and  his  family. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  we  have  no  stories  dealing 
with  Alamannic  or  Bavarian  heroes,  since  the  German  poems 
which  have  come  down  to  us  are  almost  entirely  derived  from 
the  territories  of  these  peoples^  The  Vandals  too  are  unrepre- 
sented, and  probably  also  the  Visigoths,  while  the  evidence  for 
Frankish  heroes  is  slight  and  rather  unsatisfactory,  Frankish 
nationality  is  claimed  by  most  scholars  for  Siegfried,  chiefly  on 
the  ground  that  Xanten  is  represented  as  his  home  in  the 
Nibelungenlied^.  Yet  he  is  never  called  a  Frank,  and  it  is  not 
clear  that  Xanten  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Franks  at  the 
time  to  which  the  story  refers.  The  same  nationality  may 
perhaps  be  claimed  for  Waldhere.  In  several  German  poems 
Langres  is  said  to  be  his  home,  though  he  is  also  called  a 
Spaniard,  while  Ekkehard  makes  his  father  king  of  Aquitaine=*. 
To  this  question  we  shall  have  to  return  later.  In  any  case 
both  stories  refer  to  a  period  considerably  anterior  to  the  real 
conquest  of  Gaul  by  the  Franks,  and  it  is  certainly  a  curious 
fact  that  Clovis  and  his  great  achievements  seem  to  be  entirely 
unnoticed  in  poetry. 

It  appears  then  that  though  most  of  the  principal  Teutonic 
nations  are  represented  in  our  stories  the  relative  prominence 

'  These  poems  do  introduce  Bavarian  characters,  such  as  the  Markgraf  Riidiger  ; 
but  they  are  not  found  elsewhere  in  heroic  poetry. 

2  In  the  prose  piece  Frd  daW^i  Sinfiotla  (in  the  Older  Edda)  Sigmundr  is  said  to 
have  held  territories  in  the  land  of  the  Franks. 

*  Hence  many  scholars  regard  him  as  a  Visigoth. 


32  SCENE   AND   NATIONALITY  [CHAP. 

assigned  to  them  does  not  at  all  correspond  to  what  we  should 
expect.  Most  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  in  stories  relating  to 
the  Continent  nearly  all  the  chief  characters  (Eormenric,  Theo- 
dric,  Guthhere,  Attila,  etc.)  belong  to  nations  which  had  passed 
out  of  existence  before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  From 
Jordanes  (cap.  5)  we  gather  that  the  preservation  of  the  early 
Gothic  traditions  was  very  largely  due  to  the  pride  taken  by 
that  people  in  its  own  heroes  of  the  past.  Yet  it  is  not  easy  to 
see  how  the  survival  of  the  stories  which  have  come  down  to  us 
can  be  ascribed  to  any  such  feeling. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems.  In  Beowulf 
the  scene  is  laid  first  in  the  land  of  the  Danes  and  later  in  that 
of  the  Gotar.  The  hero  himself  belongs  to  the  latter  nation, 
but  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  poem  the  former  are  decidedly  the 
more  prominent.  Taking  it  as  a  whole  the  interest  is  divided 
between  the  royal  families  of  these  two  nations  ;  the  only  other 
dynasty  which  comes  in  for  any  considerable  share  of  attention 
is  that  of  the  Swedes.  In  the  story  of  Finn  the  interest  is 
centred  in  a  prince  and  his  followers  who  according  to  Beowulf 
were  of  Danish  nationality  and  involved  in  hostilities  with  the 
Frisians.  In  Waldhere  the  hero  and  heroine,  whatever  their 
nationality,  belong  to  Gaul,  while  their  opponents  are  Burgun- 
dians.  In  Deor  the  interests  are  mainly,  perhaps  exclusively, 
Gothic.  In  Widsith  the  foremost  characters  are  Eadgils,  prince 
of  the  Myrgingas  (a  dynasty  hostile  to  the  Angli),  and  the 
Gothic  king  Eormenric  ;  after  them  the  English  king  Offa,  the 
Danish  kings  Hrothgar  and  Hrothwulf,  Guthhere,  king  of  the 
Burgundians,  Aelfwine  (Alboin,  king  of  the  Langobardi)  and 
several  Gothic  heroes.  In  all  these  poems  there  is  no  reference, 
as  far  as  we  know,  to  any  person  of  English  nationality  except 
Qffa  and  his  relatives  (Beow.  1944  ff.),  nor  except  in  Widsith  is 
the  name  of  the  Angli  even  mentioned. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  Scandinavian  records,  which  are 
entirely  Norse  (Norwegian-Icelandic),  so  far  as  the  vernacular 
literature  is  concerned,  the  phenomena  which  confront  us  are  on 
the  whole  very  similar.  As  we  might  expect  from  the  com- 
parative lateness  of  our  authorities  the  nationality  of  the  various 
characters  is  not  very  clearly  indicated.     It  is  remembered  that 


Ill]  SCENE   AND   NATIONALITY  33 

Atli  (Attila)  belonged  to  the  Huns  and  lormunrekr  (Eormenric) 
to  the  Goths,  but  Gunnarr  (Guthhere)  is  only  once  called  lord 
of  the  Burgundians.  As  for  SigurSr,  his  later  adventures  are 
uniformly  located  in  the  Rhineland,  but  the  history  of  his  family 
is  generally  connected  with  Denmark,  which  is  also  the  scene 
of  Helgi's  exploits.  Most  noteworthy  however  is  the  fact  that 
Norway  is  only  mentioned  once  in  the  Older  Edda,  namely 
in  the  prose  of  HelgakviSa  HiorvartSssonar.  In  the  sagas  it  is 
somewhat  more  prominent,  e.g.  in  the  account  of  Biarki's  origin 
in  Hrolfs  Saga  Kraka  ;  but  these  passages  are  usually  regarded 
as  accretions  to  the  original  stories.  Of  course  there  are  numerous 
other  sagas  which  deal  exclusively  with  Norwegian  history 
and  legend.  These  stories  however  are  peculiar  to  Norwegian- 
Icelandic  literature,  and  the  earliest  persons  who  figure  in  them, 
if  we  may  regard  them  as  historical,  cannot  have  lived  before 
the  .seventh  century.  In  stories  relating  to  earlier  times  the 
scene  is  practically  always  laid  in  Denmark  or  southern  Sweden 
or  in  the  lands  south  of  the  Baltic. 

Even  in  the  German  poems  national  feeling  has  influenced 
the  choice  of  subjects  comparatively  little.  The  poems  in  their 
present  form  are  mainly  Austrian  or  Bavarian.  Yet  except  in 
the  second  half  of  the  Nibelungenlied  this  region  does  not  figure 
prominently^  and  even  there  the  Bavarian  characters  that  occur 
are  generally  believed  to  be  rather  late  additions  to  the  story. 
The  chief  characters  of  the  story  in  its  original  form  were  clearly 
Burgundians  and  Huns,  to  whom  the  Goths  may  have  been 
added  at  a  fairly  early  date.  The  stories  which  deal  with  the 
Rhineland — those  of  Siegfried  and  Walther — may  be  derived 
ultimately  from  early  Prankish  poems;  but  this  cannot  be 
proved.  Most  of  the  others  are  concerned  with  Gothic  heroes, 
the  true  scene  of  whose  adventures  is  to  be  sought  in  Poland, 
Hungary,  Italy  and  other  countries  which  had  ceased  to  be 
Teutonic  before  the  time  of  our  authorities.  Theodric,  it  is  true, 
seems  to  have  become  a  national  hero  in  the  south-east,  but  this 
feature  is  prominent  only  in  the  latest  poems,  and  even  here  it 
is  clearly  remembered  that  he  belonged  to  Italy.     But  the  most 

1  Tyrol  is  the  scene  of  several  of  Dietrich's  and  Wolfdietrich's  adventures ;  but 
generally  it  is  the  southern  (Italian)  part  of  that  country. 


34  SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY  [CHAP. 

remarkable  case  is  that  of  Kudriin.  The  poem  itself  is  probably 
Austrian,  but  the  names  which  it  contains  show  that  the  story  is 
derived  from  Frisian  sources.  The  scene  is  laid  first  in  Ireland, 
then  in  Denmark  and  lastly  in  Normandy.  Yet  if  we  take  into 
account  the  various  Scandinavian  versions  and  the  references  to 
the  story  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  there  is  every  probability  that 
it  came  originally  from  the  Baltic. 

This  short  discussion  will  suffice  to  show  how  singularly  free 
the  poems  we  have  been  discussing  are  from  anything  in  the 
nature  of  national  interest  or  sentiment.  They  are  certainly 
national  in  the  sense  that  the  characters  are  drawn  entirely,  or 
almost  entirely,  from  within  the  Teutonic  world — for  even  Attila 
can  hardly  be  regarded  as  an  exception.  But  nationalism  in  the 
narrower  sense,  i.e.  in  the  interests  of  the  poet's  own  nation  or 
tribe,  seems  to  be  altogether  wanting.  The  interest  is  centred 
in  one  or  more  individual  characters  and  in  the  various  adven- 
tures that  befall  them.  Sometimes,  as  in  Beowulf,  it  does  also 
embrace  the  history  of  the  family  to  which  these  persons 
belonged,  but  the  nation,  apart  from  the  royal  family,  is 
practically  disregarded. 

The  contrast  afforded  by  the  historical  poems  of  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries^  is  sufficiently  obvious.  We  have  seen  that 
these  poems,  whether  English  or  German,  uniformly  deal  with 
the  poet's  own  nation.  The  poem  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh 
is  an  expression  of  national  triumph.  It  is  not  concerned  with 
the  personal  adventures  of  the  king  or  his  brother,  but  with  the 
prowess  of  the  English  army  as  a  whole.  The  bravery  of  the 
princes  is  certainly  noticed,  but  they  appear  to  be  regarded  as 
the  champions  and  representatives  of  the  nation.  The  Lud- 
wigslied  breathes  on  the  whole  a  similar  spirit,  in  spite  of  its 
strongly  religious  tone.  Even  in  the  skaldic  poetry  of  the  North 
traces  of  national  pride  are  clearly  discernible,  as  in  Hdkonarmdl 
(v.  3),  where  Haakon,  at  the  head  of  his  Norwegian  troops,  is 
described  as  the  terror  of  the  Danes. 

It  may  perhaps  be  urged  that,  though  the  poems  which  have 
come  down  to  us  have  no  national  interest,  they  may  be  derived 

^  The  poem  on  the  battle  of  Maldon  approximates  much  more  closely  than  any 
other  of  this  age  to  the  spirit  of  the  old  poetry. 


Ill]  SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY  35 

from  older  poems  which  originated  in  the  hero's  own  land. 
Thus  many  scholars  believe  Beowulf  to  be  of  Scandinavian 
origin  in  one  sense  or  another,  though  the  linguistic  arguments 
which  have  been  brought  forward  in  favour  of  this  view  are  not 
generally  admitted.  But  there  is  a  curious  lack  of  uniformity 
in  the  national  interests  of  the  poem,  as  we  have  already  seen. 
If  it  had  been  the  chief  intention  of  the  original  poet  to  glorify 
the  Danish  nation,  he  would  not  have  ignored  it  as  he  has  done 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  poem.  On  the  other  hand  if  his  inten- 
tion was  to  glorify  the  Gotar  he  would  hardly  have  begun  with 
an  account  of  the  early  kings  of  the  Danes.  The  difficulty  has 
been  got  over  by  supposing  that  the  poem  as  we  have  it  is  of 
composite  formation,  and  it  may  very  well  be  that  the  second 
part  of  the  poem  is  a  later  addition.  But  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  somewhat  similar  phenomena  occur  in  other  cases.  Thus 
the  stories  of  Siegfried  and  Attila  are  connected  both  in  the 
Nibelungenlied  and  the  Edda,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  connection  is  of  considerable  antiquity.  Yet  the  only 
common  element  in  the  two  stories  is  supplied  by  the  Burgun- 
dians,  and  the  portraiture  of  their  princes,  especially  that  of  the 
king,  is  hardly  of  such  a  character  as  to  suggest  its  derivation 
from  a  poem  composed  for  the  glorification  of  the  Burgundian 
nation. 

The  evidence  then  of  Beowulf  alone  is  scarcely  sufficient  to 
justify  us  in  assuming  more  than  that  its  author  or  authors  were 
interested  in  the  royal  families  of  the  North,  and  that  they 
possessed  a  considerable  amount  of  information  regarding  them. 
The  account  of  the  early  kings  of  the  Danes  seems  to  be  in  the 
nature  of  a  tribal  or  family  tradition — to  be  compared  with  the 
early  stories  given  by  Jordanes,  Paulus  Diaconus  and  Widukind. 
Traditions  of  this  kind  are  no  doubt  generally  of  a  mythical 
character,  and  consequently  their  origin  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
particular  locality  or  family  with  which  they  are  concerned. 
We  have  no  evidence  that  such  traditions  formed  the  main 
theme  of  stories  which  were  common  to  the  poetry  of  the  various 
Teutonic  peoples.  But  it  is  natural  enough  that  a  poet  who  was 
well  acquainted  with  some  royal  family,  whether  that  of  his  own 


36  SCENE    AND    NATIONALITY  [CHAP. 

nation  or  not,  would  also  know  its  traditions,  and  that  he  would 
utilise  them  incidentally  or  by  way  of  introduction  in  a  poem 
largely  concerned  with  the  fortunes  of  that  family. 

The  main  story  of  the  poem  stands  on  a  different  footing. 
Of  course  if  it  could  be  shown  that  the  Danish  princes  who 
figure  both  in  Beowulf  and  the  various  Scandinavian  records 
were  fictitious  persons,  who  never  really  existed,  we  should  be 
bound  to  hold  that  they  were  derived  from  a  common  story, 
probably  of  Scandinavian  origin.  But  few  scholars  would  now 
be  willing  to  admit  such  a  proposition.  Certain  incidents,  such 
as  the  exhortation  of  Ingeld  (Ingellus)  by  the  old  warrior 
(Starcatherus),  may  be  held  to  point  to  a  common  origin  in 
poem  or  saga  ;  but  most  of  the  events  narrated  appear  to  have 
been  either  preserved  by  memory  or  invented  independently. 

With  the  stories  of  SigurSr  (Siegfried)  and  Waldhere  the  case 
is  somewhat  different.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  great  majority  of 
scholars  that  both  these  heroes  are  mythical  or  fictitious,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  they  are  associated  with  undoubtedly  historical 
characters.  If  this  view  is  correct — a  question  which  we  shall 
have  to  discuss  later — we  may  conclude  at  once  that  the 
different  versions  of  the  two  stories,  Scandinavian  and  German 
in  the  one  case,  English  and  German  in  the  other,  have  sprung 
from  a  common  source,  whether  in  poem  or  saga.  But  even  if 
we  take  the  opposite  view,  viz.  that  SigurtJr  and  Waldhere  were 
real  persons  and  that  their  adventures  are  founded  on  fact,  it 
does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  the  different  versions  of  their 
stories  must  have  originated  independently.  Neither  hero  seems 
to  have  belonged  to  a  family  of  outstanding  position,  nor  were 
their  exploits  such  as  to  influence  the  destiny  of  nations^  In 
the  age  of  Hunnish  supremacy  scores  of  petty  princes  must 
have  undergone  somewhat  similar  adventures  and  distinguished 
themselves  by  similar  deeds  of  heroism.  Hence  it  can  hardly 
be  due  to  accident  that  the  handful  whose  names  we  know  were 
celebrated  far  and  wide  in  the  Teutonic  world. 

^  The  victories  over  the  Saxons  and  Danes  described  in  the  Nibelungenlied  and 
the  Thattr  af  Nornagesti  have  little  in  common  and  are  scarcely  to  be  regarded  as  an 
essential  feature  in  the  story  of  SiguriSr. 


Ill]  SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY  37 

The  story  of  Eormenric  is  again  rather  a  different  case.  There 
can  be  no  question  that  this  king  was  a  historical  person,  but  the 
earliest  detailed  account  which  we  possess  of  his  doings,  viz.  that 
given  by  Jordanes,  dates  from  nearly  two  centuries  after  his 
death.  Now  we  find  what  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  episode 
in  Eormenric's  story,  namely  the  account  of  Swanhild  and  the 
vengeance  attempted  by  her  brothers,  both  in  Jordanes  and  the 
Older  Edda  (GuSrunarhvot  and  HamSismdl)  with  comparatively 
slight  variations.  The  chief  feature  wanting  in  Jordanes'  ac- 
count is  supplied  by  the  Annals  of  Quedlinburg^  How  much 
truth  the  story  contains  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  decide.  But 
even  if  we  grant  that  the  main  features  are  historical,  the  event 
can  hardly  have  been  of  the  first  importance,  since  the  attack 
seems  really  to  have  failed  in  its  object.  Ammianus  MarcelHnus 
says  that  Eormenric  committed  suicide  owing  to  despair  at  the 
impending  Hunnish  invasion,  and  Jordanes  recognises  that  his 
death  was  partly  due  to  this  cause.  But  in  the  later  (Scandi- 
navian and  German)  accounts  it  is  entirely  forgotten.  Hence  if 
we  bear  in  mind  the  close  agreement  between  the  Gothic  and 
Scandinavian  versions  of  the  story,  not  only  in  the  names  of  the 
characters  but  also  in  the  description  of  Swanhild's  death,  we 
can  hardly  help  inferring  that  they  are  derived  from  a  common 
narrative  source. 

In  conclusion  mention  may  be  made  of  a  story  which  appears 
to  be  definitely  at  variance  with  historical  truth,  namely  the 
account  of  Attila's  death  given  in  the  Edda  poems  AtlakviSa 
and  Atlamdl.  It  is  there  stated  that  Attila  was  murdered  with 
his  two  children  by  his  wife  Gu?5run  in  revenge  for  her  brothers 
(Gunnarr  and  Hogni),  whom  he  had  treacherously  put  to  death. 
Now  Jordanes  (cap.  49)  says  that  Attila  died  from  the  bursting 
of  a  blood-vessel  on  the  night  of  his  marriage  with  a  girl  named 
Ildico.  As  his  account  is  derived  from  Priscus,  a  contemporary 
and  trustworthy  writer,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  is  correct. 
Yet  it  should  be  observed  that  the  Roman  chronicler  Marcellinus 
Comes,  who  wrote  apparently  a  few  years  before  Jordanes,  says 

*  Anastasius  annos  XXVII Ermanrici  regis  Gothorum  a  fratribns  Hemido  et 

Serilo  et  Adaccaro,  quorum  patrem.  interfecerat,  amputatis  manibus  et  pedibus  turpiter, 
lit  dicmus  erat.  occisio  (Mon.  Germ..  Scr.  ill  n.  ■i\\. 


rtlo  et  Aaaccaro,  quorum  patrem  interjecerat,  am^ 
dignus  erat,  occisio  (Mon.  Germ.,  Scr.  in  p.  31) 


38  SCENE   AND    NATIONALITY  [CHAP. 

that  Attila  died  by  the  hand  of  a  woman\  The  account  given 
in  the  Edda  therefore  is  no  invention  of  an  Icelandic  or 
Norwegian  poet,  but  founded  on  a  story  which  was  current 
among  the  Romans  within  a  century  after  Attila's  death.  Indeed 
considering  the  circumstances  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that 
the  story  originated  immediately  after  the  event. 

These  examples  will  be  sufficient  to  show  that  the  subjects  of 
many  of  our  poems  are  derived  from  stories  which  passed  from 
one  Teutonic  people  to  another  and  some  of  which  were  of  great 
antiquity.  Further,  it  is  a  proof  of  the  popularity  of  these  stories 
that  they  were  preserved  until  comparatively  late  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  did  not  appeal  to  national 
interests.  The  question  how  they  were  preserved  and  transmitted 
is  one  which  we  shall  have  to  discuss  in  the  following  chapters. 
We  may  note  at  once  however  that  the  most  obvious  means  of 
preservation,  namely  by  means  of  writing,  was  almost  certainly 
not  used  to  any  great  extent.  Had  that  been  the  case  the 
divergencies  between  the  different  versions  of  the  stories  would 
be  far  less  noticeable  than  they  are.  Even  in  the  case  of 
Waldhere,  which  shows  probably  the  least  amount  of  variation, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  fragments  show  a  treatment  of  the  subject 
totally  different  from  that  which  appears  in  Ekkehard's  poem. 
Again,  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Roman  alphabet  was  used 
in  the  North,  except  possibly  by  a  few  foreigners  here  and  there, 
before  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  while  the  Runic  alphabet, 
though  it  had  been  known  for  many  centuries,  seems  not  to  have 
been  employed  for  literary  purposes  until  very  late  times.  But, 
as  we  have  already  mentioned,  some  of  the  Edda  poems  date 
probably  from  the  ninth  century,  and  the  story  of  HeSinn  and 
Hogni  is  used  by  the  poet  Bragi  who  lived  apparently  in  the 
early  part  of  that  century.  On  the  Continent  of  course  the  case 
is  somewhat  different.  We  have  seen  that  Charlemagne  did 
have  a  number  of  ancient  poems  written  down  ;  but  there  is 
nothing  to  show  that  his  collection  had  any  permanent  influence. 
When    the  Quedlinburg  annalist   or  his   authority  quotes  the 

'  Ind.  vn.  Actio  et  Studio  coss.  (a.u.  454) :  Attila  rex  Hunnorum  Europae 
orbator  prottinciae  noctu  mulieris  manu  cultroque  confoditur.  quidam  uero  sanguinis 
reiectione  necatum  perhibent. 


Ill]  SCENE   AND   NATIONALITY  39 

heroic  stories,  perhaps  some  two  centuries  later,  he  refers  not 
to  any  written  works  but  to  songs  formerly  current  among  the 
country  people.  It  is  doubtless  by  oral  tradition  therefore,  whether 
in  verse  or  prose,  that  the  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age  have  mainly 
been  preserved. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  a  large  number  of  similar 
stories  have  perished.  A  glance  through  the  catalogues  of 
Widsith  will  show  many  names  which  otherwise  are  entirely 
unknown  to  us,  and  also  an  appreciable  number  which  are  not 
mentioned  elsewhere  in  Anglo-Saxon  literature,  though  they 
figure  in  German  and  Scandinavian  records.  It  would  scarcely 
be  wise  however  to  assume  that  all  the  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age 
were  common  Teutonic  property.  Thus  we  have  no  evidence 
for  the  story  of  Waldhere  in  the  Norths  while  stories  dealing 
with  Danish  heroes  seem  to  have  been  little  known  in  Germany. 
The  latter  observation  deserves  notice  all  the  more  in  view  of 
the  obvious  popularity  of  such  stories  in  England — a  fact  proved 
not  merely  by  Beowulf  and  Finn,  but  still  more  by  the 
prominence  assigned  to  Danish  characters  in  Widsith. 

It  will  be  convenient  now  to  summarise  briefly  the  results 
of  our  discussion.  We  have  seen  that  the  scenes  of  the  heroic 
stories  are  distributed  over  most  of  the  lands  formerly  occupied 
by  the  Teutonic  peoples.  Norway  and  England  however,  as 
well  as  the  distant  kingdoms  of  the  Visigoths  and  Vandals,  seem 
to  lie  outside  the  area.  The  heroes  also  are  drawn  from  many 
nations,  though  not  in  the  proportion  which  we  should  expect. 
Thus  the  Prankish  nation,  which  ultimately  became  dominant,  is 
but  poorly  represented,  while  the  most  prominent  places  are 
taken  by  peoples  such  as  the  Ostrogoths  and  Burgundians,  which 
lost  their  nationality  in  the  course  of  the  sixth  century. 

We  have  further  seen  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
characters  of  the  heroic  stories  figure  in  the  literature  of  two  or 
more  nations,  and  that  frequently  the  same  stories  are  told  of 
them.  In  the  latter  case  it  is  probable,  indeed  often  practically 
certain,  that  the  different  versions  of  the  story  are  ultimately 
derived  from  a  common  narrative.  On  the  other  hand,  where 
the  same  characters  are  known   but  only  in   connection  with 

^  Excluding  of  course  ThitJreks  S.  af  Bern. 


40  SCENE   AND   NATIONALITY  [CHAP.  Ill 

different  events,  such  derivation  can  be  proved  only  if  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  characters  themselves  are  fictitious.  This  remark 
applies  especially  to  a  number  of  characters  common  to  Beowulf 
and  Scandinavian  stories  relating  to  Hr61fr  Kraki  and  his  times. 
It  is  fully  in  accord  with  these  facts  that  the  heroic  poems 
are  not  concerned  at  all — or  at  least  only  to  a  very  slight  degree 
— with  local  or  tribal  interests.  Their  tone  indeed  may  be 
described  as  in  a  sense  international,  though  with  the  restriction 
that  characters  and  scenes  alike  are  drawn  exclusively  from 
within  the  Teutonic  world. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY   OF   THE    HEROIC    POEMS. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  (p.  3)  it  was  mentioned  that  the 
Enghsh  heroic  poems  are  usually  ascribed  to  the  seventh  or 
eighth  centuries.  We  must  now  try  to  see  whether  any  means 
are  to  be  found  of  dating  their  composition  more  precisely. 

Unfortunately  very  few  references  to  the  poems  or  their 
subjects  occur  in  works  which  can  be  dated  with  anything  like 
certainty.  The  most  important  is  contained  in  a  letter  from 
Alcuin  to  Hygebald,  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  written  in  the  year 
797  :  "  When  priests  dine  together  let  the  words  of  God  be  read. 
It  is  fitting  on  such  occasions  to  listen  to  a  reader,  not  to  a 
harpist,  to  the  discourses  of  the  fathers,  not  to  the  poems  of  the 
heathen.  What  has  Ingeld  to  do  with  Christ.?  Strait  is  the 
house ;  it  will  not  be  able  to  hold  them  both.  The  king  of 
heaven  will  have  no  part  with  so-called  kings  who  are  heathen 
and  damned  ;  for  the  one  king  reigns  eternally  in  heaven,  the 
other,  the  heathen,  is  damned  and  groans  in  hell.  In  your 
houses  the  voices  of  those  who  read  should  be  heard,  not  a  rabble 
of  those  who  make  merry  in  the  streets ^"  From  this  passage  it 
is  clear  that  at  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  there  were  current 
in  Northumbria  certain  poems,  probably  well  known  poems, 
dealing  with  a  heathen  king  named  Ingeld,  whom  we  need  not 

^  Verba  Dei  legantur  in  sacerdotali  conuiido.  ibi  decet  ledorem  audiri,  non 
citharistam  ;  sermones patrum,  non  carmina  gentilium.  quid  Hinieldus  cum  Christo? 
angusta  est  domus  ;  utrosque  tenere  non  poterit.  non  uult  rex  coelestis  cum  paganis  et 
perditis  nominetenus  regibus  communionem  habere,  quia  rex  ille  aelernus  regnat  in 
coelo,  ille  pagantis  perditus  plangit  in  inferno,  uoces  legentium  audiri  in  domibus  tuis, 
non  ridentium  turuam  in plateis.  Mon.  Germ.,  Epist.  Carol.  II  124;  cf.  O.  Janicke, 
ZfdA.  XV  314. 


42  THE  ORIGIN   OF   THE  POEMS  [CHAP. 

hesitate  to  identify  with  Ingeld  the  son  of  Froda,  who  figures  in 
Beowulf  Of  course  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  reference  is  to 
Beowulf  itself,  for  the  part  played  by  Ingeld  in  that  poem  is 
insignificant. 

Acquaintance  with  the  subjects  of  the  heroic  poems  is  shown 
also  by  a  mistake  in  the  Historia  Brittonum,  31,  which  dates 
probably  from  about  the  same  period.  This  passage  contains  a 
genealogy,  tracing  the  descent  of  Hengest  and  Horsa  from 
Woden  and  of  Woden  from  Geat.  The  latter  part  is  known 
also  from  many  other  texts,  in  which  it  regularly  runs  as  follows: 
Woden  Frealafing,  Frealaf  FrWmwidfing,  Frithuwidf  Fmning, 
Finn  Godwulfing,  Godwidf  Geatmg.  In  the  Historia  Brittonum 
however  in  place  of  Finn  Godwidfing  we  find  Finn  qui  fnit 
Folcwald — which  is  clearly  due  to  confusion  with  Finn  the  son 
of  Folcwalda  {Finn  Folcwalding),  a  Frisian  king  mentioned  in 
Beowulf  and  Widsith,  as  well  as  in  the  fragment  which  bears  his 
name. 

Further  evidence  is  afforded  by  names  of  persons  and  places. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  even  in  the  seventh  century  it  was 
customary  to  take  the  names  of  famous  men  of  the  past  or 
present.  Danihel,  bishop  of  Winchester  (d.  745),  and  lohannes, 
bishop  of  Hexham  (d.  721),  are  instances  which  no  one  will 
dispute.  In  the  Durham  Liber  Vitae  we  meet  with  the  names 
Aethan  and  Cundigeorn.  It  must  not  be  assumed  that  persons 
bearing  such  names  were  necessarily  of  Celtic  blood.  Indeed 
the  spelling  suggests  rather  that  they  were  Englishmen  called 
after  Aidan  and  Kentigern.  Deusdedit,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury (655 — 664),  doubtless  derived  his  name  from  Pope  Deus- 
dedit (615—618),  while  the  West  Saxon  king  Ceadwalla 
(685 — 688)  was  in  all  probability  called  after  the  British  king  of 
the  same  name,  who  died  in  642.  It  is  extremely  likely  that 
Hlothhere,  king  of  Kent  (673 — 685),  obtained  his  name  from  one 
of  the  Frankish  kings,  Lothair  II  (584 — 628)  or  Lothair  III 
(656 — 670),  for  the  element  hloth-  is  not  used  elsewhere  in 
Anglo-Saxon  names.  Even  in  the  sixth  century  we  hear  of 
English  princes  who  seem  to  be  called  after  Frankish  or  Gothic 
kings  of  the  same  period.  Thus  Tytla,  the  name  of  the  father  of 
the   East  Anglian  king  Redwald,  is  probably  taken  from  the 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  43 

Gothic  king  Totila ;  it  is  not  of  an  English  type.  Two  sons  of 
the  Northumbrian  king  Ida  were  called  Theodric  and  Aethelric, 
perhaps  after  the  Gothic  king  Theodric  and  his  successor 
Athalaric.  As  the  element  theod-  is  somewhat  rare  in  England, 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  Northumbrian  prince  Theodbald,  a 
son  of  Aethelric,  derived  his  name  from  the  Frankish  king 
Theodbald. 

The  occurrence  of  such  names  as  Widsith  and  Beowulf 
{Biutilf)  in  the  Liber  Vitae  shows  that  names  were  taken  not 
only  from  contemporary  persons  and  from  books  but  also  from 
native  poems  and  traditions.  Indeed  researches  which  have 
been  made  in  this  direction  have  demonstrated  that  names  of 
the  latter  type  were  extremely  popular.  But  it  has  not  been 
sufficiently  pointed  out  that  such  names  occur  most  frequently 
in  the  earliest  times  and  gradually  become  more  rare — a  fact 
which  is  of  considerable  importance  for  our  purpose.  The  total 
number  of  personal  names  found  in  the  five  poems  Beowulf, 
Finn,  Waldhere,  Widsith  and  Deor  is  .I32\  and  of  these 
altogether  57  recur  as  names  of  persons  mentioned  in  English 
historical  documents.  Over  forty  of  these  names  belonged  to 
persons  who  appear  to  have  lived,  or  at  any  rate  to  have  been 
born,  before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century^  while  at  least 
thirteen  of  them  are  unknown  after  the  same  period.  To  the 
latter  class  belong  the  important  names  Widsith  and  Beowulf 

In  local  nomenclature  it  is  possible  to  trace  at  least  51  of  the 
132  names  mentioned  above.  In  some  cases  these  names  may 
have  been  taken  direct  from  the  story,  e.g.  when  we  find  in  Kent 
two  localities  close  together  called  Hokes  clif  and  Hengstes  earns 
(Birch,  Cart.  Sax.,  Ill  1000).  A  similar  case,  very  frequently 
cited ^  is  that  of  Beowanhammes  hecgan  and  Grendelcs  mere  in 
Wiltshire  {ib.  II  6'] J'),  though  neither  of  these  names  is  included 
in  our  list.  But  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  more  probable  that 
the  place-name  is  taken  in  the  first  instance  from  that  of  a 
previous  landowner,  and  consequently  that  the  connection  with 

^  The  names  Grendel,  Cain,  Abel,  Alexandreas  and  Casere  are  not  included. 
"^  For  the  figures  and  the  method  of  calculation  see  Note  I. 

3  But  open  to  very  serious  objections,  as  has  been  shown  by  Prof.  W.  W.  Lawrence 
in  the  Publications  of  the  Modem  Language  Association  of  America,  xxiv  251  ff. 


44  THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

the  Story  is  only  secondary.  Hence  it  is  important  to  notice 
that  out  of  the  51  place-names  no  less  than  19  contain  names 
which  are  not  borne  by  persons  in  historical  documents.  The 
explanation  of  this  lies  doubtless  in  the  fact  that  the  place-names 
for  the  most  part  became  fixed  at  a  very  early  period,  and 
consequently  that  they  exhibit  an  earlier  stratum  of  personal 
nomenclature. 

If  we  add  the  place-names  to  the  personal  names  the  total 
number  of  heroic  names  found  in  England  in  historical 
documents  seems  to  be  ']6.  Out  of  this  number  only  seven 
apparently  are  limited  to  persons  born  after  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  and  of  these  again  almost  all  occur  in  the  course 
of  the  eighth  century.  These  statistics  show  clearly  that  such 
names  were  most  popular  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries, 
especially  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  materials  for  this  period 
are  incomparably  less  than  those  for  the  following  three 
centuries.  Hence,  if  we  are  justified  in  drawing  any  conclusions 
from  nomenclature,  the  popularity  of  the  heroic  stories  was 
distinctly  on  the  wane  in  Alcuin's  time. 

The  argument  from  nomenclature  holds  good  of  course  only 
for  showing  the  popularity  of  the  stories ;  it  cannot  prove  the 
existence  of  the  poems  which  we  now  possess.  In  one  case 
however  we  may  probably  make  an  exception.  The  name 
Widsith  is  obviously  fictitious'  and  based  on  the  travels  with 
which  the  minstrel  is  credited.  The  introduction,  in  which 
alone  the  name  occurs,  is  in  all  probability  a  later  composition 
than  the  rest  of  the  poem^  and  designed  to  explain  what 
follows.  It  is  of  importance  therefore  to  note  that,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  place  in  which  this  name  occurs  in  the  Liber 
Vitae,  it  must  have  been  borne  by  a  person  of  the  seventh 
century. 

^  Compound  names  containing  wtd-  or  -s't\  {-sin^-)  are  used  in  other  Teutonic 
languages;  but  the  latter  apparently  does  not  occur  in  England,  while  the  former  is 
extremely  rare. 

2  In  contrast  with  the  body  of  the  poem  (w.  lo — 134)  it  is  non-strophic,  after  the 
general  fashion  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  Originally  when  the  poem  was  recited  it  may 
have  been  introduced  with  a  short  explanation  in  prose,  such  as  we  find  e.g.  in 
Rfgsmal  or  Atlakvi'Sa.  The  epilogue  (vv.  135—143),  which  is  likewise  non-strophic, 
may  belong  to  the  same  stratum. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  45 

We  must  next  turn  to  the  internal  evidence.  The  linguistic 
criteria  are  of  a  somewhat  unsatisfactory  nature  and  investiga- 
tions in  this  field  have  led  to  few  definite  results.  It  is  clear 
that  the  heroic  poems  do  not  exhibit  any  dialect  in  its  purity — 
a  remark  which  is  true  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  in  general.  West 
Saxon  forms  predominate  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  final 
recension  of  the  text  is  due  to  scribes  who  employed  this  dialect. 
Yet  at  the  same  time  there  are  a  sufficient  number  of  Midland 
or  Northumbrian  characteristics^  to  render  it  highly  probable 
that  the  poems  were  not  only  composed  but  also  originally 
written  down  in  one  of  these  dialects.  Beyond  this  however 
no  safe  conclusions  can  be  attained  owing  to  the  lateness  of 
the  MSS. 

In  regard  to  syntax  the  heroic  poems  are  at  least  as  archaic 
as  any  other  remains  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  We  may  notice  especially  the  use  of  the  definite 
article,  which  in  reality  is  still  a  demonstrative  pronoun  in  the 
heroic  poems.  It  occurs  comparatively  seldom  in  connection 
with  a  weak  adjective  followed  by  a  substantive — a  usage  which 
is  nearly  universal  in  most  of  the  Christian  poems.  Thus  in 
Cynewulf's  works  the  proportion  of  examples  with  and  without 
the  article  varies  from  7:1  to  9 :  i,  and  even  in  the  first  part  of 
Guthlac,  which  is  believed  to  date  from  soon  after  the  middle  of 
the  eighth  century,  the  proportion  is  7  :  i  '^ ;  but  in  Beowulf  it  is 
only  I  :  5.  If  the  Dream  of  the  Cross,  in  which  the  proportion  is 
2  :  I,  is  rightly  attributed  to  the  early  years  of  the  eighth  century ^ 
it  seems  reasonable  to  date  the  composition  of  Beowulf  quite 
half  a  century  further  back.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  usage 
of  Beowulf  is  shown  by  Exodus,  in  which  the  proportion  is  over 
2  :  3.  Unfortunately  we  have  no  certain  means  of  dating  this 
work,  though  it  is  generally  believed  to  be  one  of  the  earliest 
of  the  Christian  poems.  Its  archaic  character  would  be  natural 
enough  if  it  is  really  the  work  of  Caedmon,  who  flourished  while 

^  Especially  the  regular  use  of  unsyncopated  forms  such  as  3  sg.  on-winded,  past 
part,  onsended. 

*  The  statistics  for  these  poems  are  as  follows  :  Juliana  27  :  3,  Christ  (II)  28  :  3, 
Elene  66  :  9,  Guthlac  (A)  42  :  6,  Dream  of  the  Cross  10  :  5,  Exodus  10  :  14,  Beowulf 
13  :  65  ;  see  Brandl,  S.B.  d.  Akad.  der  Wiss.  zu  Berlin,  1905,  p.  718  f. 

3  Cf.  Brandl,  I.e.  (p.  721  ff.). 


46  THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

Hild  was  abbess  at  Whitby  (658 — 680)  and  who  according  to 
Bede^  did  compose  a  poem  or  poems  on  this  subject. 

The  metrical  characteristics  of  the  heroic  poems  differ  but 
little  from  those  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  in  general.  Cases  of 
absence  of  contraction  after  the  loss  of  intervocalic  -h-  (e.g.  in  the 
half-verse  hean  hiises)  can  be  paralleled  in  poems  dating  from  the 
close  of  the  eighth  century  or  even  later,  where  they  are  doubt- 
less to  be  regarded  as  poetic  archaisms.  On  the  other  hand 
importance  is  generally  attached  to  the  absence  of  any  evidence 
for  the  retention  of  -u  after  a  long  syllable  and  to  the  shortening 
of  syllables  containing  -r-  which  was  originally  followed  by 
antevocalic  -h-.  Thus  it  is  contended  that  such  combinations  as 
to  widan  feore  in  the  latter  half  of  a  verse  cannot  go  back  to  the 
middle  of  the  seventh  century  ^  since  the  form  in  use  at  that  time 
would  be  feorha,  which  would  offend  against  the  metre.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  half-verses  of  the  condemned  type  do  occur  in 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  Beowulf  itself  containing  at  least  eight 
examples.  But  even  if  we  were  to  admit  all  these  statements 
and  emend  the  offending  verses  the  argument  would  be  con- 
clusive only  on  the  assumption  that  the  poems  were  written 
down  from  the  very  beginning^  Poems  which  are  preserved 
by  oral  tradition  alone  are  manifestly  liable  to  small  verbal 
changes,  especially  in  a  metre  so  flexible  as  that  of  the  Teutonic 
alliterative  verse.  Thus  in  place  of  the  expression  to  widan  feore 
we  find  occasionally  widan  feore  in  the  same  sense,  and  even  in 
Beowulf  we  meet  with  widan  feorh  which  is  not  improbably  the 
oldest  form  of  the  phrase.  Before  the  loss  of  final  -u  it  would  be 
a  perfectly  regular  half-verse,  but  the  operation  of  this  change 
would  render  it  impossible  and  necessitate  the  substitution  of  a 
synonymous  expression.    In  principle,  it  should  be  observed,  the 

^  Hist.  Eccl.,  IV  24 :  canebat  autem  de  creatione  mundi  et  ortgine  humani 
generis  et  tota  genesis  histo7-ia,  de  egressu  Israel  ex  Aegypto  et  ingressu  in  t err  am 
repromissionis,  de  aliis  phirimis  sacrae  scripturae  historiis,  de  incarnatione  dominica, 
passione,  resurrectione  et  ascensione  in  caelum,  de  Spiritus  Sancti  adiientu  et  apostolorum 
doctrina.  item  de  terrore  futuri  iudicii  et  horrore  poenae  gehennalis  ac  dulceditie  regni 
caelestis  multa  carmina  faciebat ;  sed  et  perplura  de  beneficiis  et  iudiciis  diuinis,  etc. 
Prof.  Brandl  {^Grundr.,  \\  1028)  holds  that  the  reference  is  to  lyric  poems  throughout. 
But  is  this  interpretation  really  necessary  ? 

2  On  this  date  see  Note  II. 

*  For  a  brief  discussion  of  this  question  see  Note  III. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  47 

assumption  of  such  substitutions  seems  to  be  absolutely  necessary, 
unless  we  are  prepared  to  deny  that  any  old  poems  or  even 
verses  survived  the  period  of  apocope.  Yet  there  is  a  sufficient 
amount  of  resemblance  between  English  and  German  poetry,  not 
merely  in  the  general  metrical  scheme  but  also  in  the  construc- 
tion of  individual  verses^  to  render  such  a  conclusion  extremely 
improbable.  Consequently  I  am  very  much  inclined  to  doubt 
whether  any  safe  conclusions  as  to  the  date  of  the  poems  can 
be  obtained  from  metrical  considerations,  except  of  course  as 
regards  their  final  form. 

Of  far  greater  importance  is  the  fact  that  with  the  exception 
of  the  Finn-fragment,  which  consists  of  only  fifty  verses,  all  our 
poems  contain  passages  or  references  of  a  religious  (Christian) 
character.  In  Beowulf  alone  there  are  about  seventy  such 
passages  of  which  the  significance  is  not  open  to  question,  and 
seven  or  eight  others  which  may  belong  to  the  same  category. 
Out  of  the  total  number  thirty-three  are  limited  to  single  verses 
or  half-verses^,  while  another  sixteen  affect  not  more  than  two 
verses  in  each  easel  The  longest  passage  of  all  (v.  1724  ff.) 
contains  at  least  37  verses,  the  next  longest  (v.  175  ff.)  fourteen. 
The  rest  vary  from  three  to  nine  verses*.  The  theology  which 
appears  in  these  passages  is  of  a  singularly  vague  type.  There 
are  four  distinct  references  to  incidents  in  the  early  part  of 
Genesis,  viz.  one  (v.  90  ff.)  to  the  Creation,  two  (vv.  107  ff., 
1 261  ff.)  to  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel  and  one  (v.  1688  ff.)  to 
the  Flood.  Apart  from  these  there  appears  to  be  no  reference 
to  any  passage  in  the  Bible  except  perhaps  in  v.  1745  ff.,  which 
are  thought  by  some  to  be  based  on  Ephes.  vi.  16,  and  in 
v.  3069,  which  contains  the  phrase  '  day  of  judgment.'     We  find 

^  A  few  examples  are  given  in  the  following  chapter. 

2  vv.  27,  72,  loi,  570,  670,  706,  711,  756  (?),  786,  788,  790,  801,  806,  811,  852, 
940,  967,  975,  986  (?),  1201,  1255,  1379,  1626,  1658,  1680,  1682,  2088,  2182,  2216  (?), 
2276  (?),  2469,  2650,  3083  (?). 

»  vv.  168  f.  (?),  227  f.,  440  f.,  478  f.,  588  f.,  625  f.,  945  f.,  955  f.,  1314  f.,  1397  f., 
1778  f.,  1841  f.,  1997  f.,  2819  f.,  2874  f.,  3108  f. 

*  w.  13—17,  90—8,  106—14,  316—8,  381—4,  665—7  (?),  685—7,  696—702, 
928—31,  977—9,  1056—62,  1261—5,  1271— 6,  1553—6,  1609— 11,  1661—4, 
1688 — 93,  1716— 8,  2291—3,  2329-31,  2341— 3  (?),  2741—3,  2794—7,  2855—9, 
3054—7,  3069—73. 


48  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE    POEMS  [CHAP. 

also  a  few  references  to  rewards  and  punishments  in  a  future 
life^  The  word  god  is  of  very  frequent  occurrence  and  always 
used  in  the  Christian  sense.  The  other  epithets  of  the  Deity 
are  '  lord  '  {frea,  dryhten),  '  father '  {faeder),  '  creator '  {scyppend), 
'  ruler '  {waldend),  '  almighty '  {alwalda,  aelmihtigd),  '  ruler  of 
men  '  {ylda  or  fira  waldend),  '  ruler  of  glory '  {wuldres  waldend)^ 
'shepherd  of  glory '  {wiildres  /tyrde),'k'mg  of  glory'  (wu/durcyuing), 
'guider  of  the  heavens'  (rodera  raedend),  'helm  of  the  heavens' 
(Jieofena  helm),  '  ruler  of  victories '  {sigora  waldend),  '  king  of 
victories '  {sigora  so'^cyning).  On  the  other  hand  there  is  no 
example  of  the  word  gast  in  a  religious  sense  (Holy  Ghost), 
nor  of  the  name  Crist,  nor  of  any  epithet  denoting  'Saviour' 
{jiergend,  haelend  etc.).  Hardly  less  curious  is  the  total  absence 
of  the  word  engel,  for  expressions  such  as  '  lord  of  angels  '  {engla 
dryhten"^)  are  among  the  most  frequent  epithets  of  the  Deity  in 
Anglo-Saxon  religious  poems.  Lastly,  there  are  no  references 
to  the  saints,  to  the  cross  or  to  the  church,  nor  to  any  Christian 
rites  or  ceremonies. 

It  appears  then  that  the  religious  utterances  of  the  poem  are 
of  a  singularly  one-sided  character.  Indeed  it  has  been  observed^ 
that,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  vv.  977 — 9,  "  their  theology  is 
covered  by  the  Old  Testament,  and  a  pious  Jew  would  have  no 
difficulty  in  assenting  to  them  all."  Certainly  the  facts  are  such 
as  to  call  for  some  explanation,  especially  since  the  religious 
poems  are  pervaded  by  a  wholly  different  tone. 

One  suggestion  is  that  Beowulf  was  composed  under  the 
influence  of  the  missionaries  from  lona ;  but  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  the  influence  of  Irish  Christianity  would  tend 
in  this  direction  at  all*.  Another  is  that  the  poet  had  little 
direct  knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion,  but  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  some  religious  poems.  This  explanation 
certainly  seems  to  fit  the  case  much  better  than  the  other. 
Moreover  there  is  one  piece  of  positive  evidence  in  its  favour. 

1  vv.  588  f.,  977— 9>  2741—3.  2819  f. 

^  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  in  v.  ■2186  the  expression  dryhten  wereda  is  used 
of  Hygelac.  Elsewhere  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  this  phrase  is  applied  only  to  the 
Deity. 

^  Clark  Hall,  Beowulf,  p.  xxviii. 

*  If  there  is  Celtic  influence  at  all  it  is  more  probably  Welsh, 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  49 

In  Beow.  v.  89  ff.  we  hear  of  recitation  to  the  accompaniment  of 
the  harp  in  Hrothgar's  hall,  and  the  subject  of  the  recitation  is 
the  creation  of  the  world.  It  appears  to  me  highly  probable 
that  we  have  here  an  allusion  to  Caedmon's  poem  or  poems  on 
Genesis,  which  may  very  well  have  been  among  the  earliest  of 
that  poet's  productions.  At  all  events  it  was  by  his  hymn  on 
the  Creation  that  he  first  became  known.  The  inference  is 
strengthened  by  the  rather  close  resemblance  which  the  hymn 
bears  to  the  phraseology  of  Beowulf.  If  the  two  poets  were 
contemporary  the  author  of  Beowulf  would  have  no  other 
Christian  poet  on  whom  to  draw,  and  the  limitations  of  his 
theological  equipment  might  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  on 
the  hypothesis  that  he  knew  only  a  few  of  Caedmon's  works. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  two  or  three  out  of  the  list  given  by  Bede' 
would  have  been  quite  sufficient  to  provide  him  with  all  the 
statements  and  terms  that  he  uses. 

There  is  another  question  however  with  regard  to  the 
composition  of  Beowulf  which  has  aroused  more  controversy 
than  this,  namely  whether  the  Christian  passages  formed  an 
original  part  of  the  poem  or  not.  In  the  former  case  of  course 
the  poem  cannot  have  been  composed  before  the  second  quarter 
of  the  seventh  century.  Indeed,  if  we  grant  the  use  of 
Caedmon's  poetry  the  earliest  possible  date  would  be  about  660. 
On  the  other  hand  if  the  Christian  passages  are  due  to  inter- 
polation the  upper  limit  for  the  dating  of  the  poem  vanishes 
into  air. 

As  to  the  possibility  of  such  interpolation  in  principle  we 
need  scarcely  entertain  any  doubt.  It  is  true  that  the  Christian 
passages  or  references  cannot  as  a  rule  be  removed  without 
breaking  into  the  rhythm.  Consequently,  if  interpolation  has 
taken  place  we  must  assume  it  to  be  the  work  of  poets  or 
minstrels,  and  not  of  scribes.  But  have  we  any  reason  for 
doubting  that  the  minstrels  of  that  period  were  capable  of  such 
'  interpolation.'  Wherever  poetry — at  all  events  anonymous 
narrative  poetry — is  preserved  exclusively  by  oral  tradition,  it 
is  usually  the  case  that  the  minstrel  is  allowed  a  certain  amount 

^  Cf.  p.  46,  note,  where  the  passage  is  quoted  in  full. 


50  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

of  freedom  in  the  presentation  of  his  subject'.  Now  probably 
no  one  will  suggest  that  it  was  only  after  their  conversion  to 
Christianity  that  the  English  began  to  compose  poems  about 
'  heathen  kings.'  But,  if  we  grant  that  such  poems  were  already 
in  existence,  does  it  really  involve  a  greater  amount  of  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  minstrels  to  bring  these  poems  up  to  date — by 
removing  objectionable  matter  and  introducing  expressions  in 
accordance  with  the  new  religion — than  to  compose  an  entirely 
new  set  of  poems  on  the  same  subjects.  I  cannot  think  that 
such  a  view  will  be  seriously  maintained.  Therefore  we  must 
consider  the  case  of  Beowulf — the  only  narrative  poem  which 
has  come  down  to  us  entire — without  prejudice  on  the  general 
question  ;  and  we  must  endeavour  to  see  whether  it  bears  the 
stamp  of  a  new  composition  or  that  of  an  old  work  which  has 
been  brought  into  conformity  with  new  ideas.  The  probability  or 
improbability  of  the  latter  view  will  of  course  depend  largely  on 
the  amount  of  inconsistency  which  the  poem  is  found  to  contain. 
Until  within  the  last  few  years  the  majority  of  scholars 
believed  that  Beowulf  was  a  composite  work.  This  theory  was 
most  fully  developed  in  the  writings  of  Miillenhoff  and  ten 
Brink.  According  to  the  former-  the  poem  was  made  up  from 
four  separate  lays,  though  in  its  present  form  nearly  half  of  it 
is  the  work  of  interpolators.  The  latter^  likewise  traced  the 
origin  of  the  poem  to  lays,  but  explained  its  inconsistencies  as 
being  due  not  to  extensive  interpolations  but  to  the  combination 
of  two  parallel  versions.  In  regard  to  the  relative  antiquity  of 
the  various  parts  of  the  poem  there  was  great  divergence  of 
opinion  both  between  these  scholars  and  generally.  It  is 
perhaps  partly  on  this  account  that  in  recent  years  there  has 
been  a  reaction  in  favour  of  believing  that  the  poem  as  we  have 
it  is  practically  the  work  of  one  man,  though  it  is  allowed  that 
he  may  have  made  use  of  earlier  lays.     But  those  who  have 

1  The  amount  of  freedom  diflfers  of  course  greatly  from  case  to  case  (cf.  Note  IV, 
p.  loi  ff.) ;  but  it  is  only  in  communities  which  have  elaborated  the  art  of  minstrelsy 
to  a  very  high  degree  that  the  form  of  words  can  become  absolutely  stereotyped. 

*  Beowu// {i8Sg),  pp.  no — 160. 

'  Quellen  unci  Forschungen,  LXii  (1888) ;  summarised  p.  242  flf. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  5 1 

adopted  this  view  seem  to  agree  that  the  author,  whatever  his 
precise  date,  belonged  to  the  Christian  period,  and  consequently 
that  the  religious  passages  are  not  due  to  interpolation. 

Now  in  the  first  place  it  is  clear  that  the  story  of  Beowulf 
is  derived  from  the  Baltic,  and  the  first  question  which  we  have 
to  settle  is  as  to  the  time  at  which  the  information  on  which  it 
is  based  became  known  in  England.  The  Angli  themselves 
were  originally  a  Baltic  people,  as  I  have  tried  elsewhere  to 
show,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  down  to  the  time  of  the 
invasion  of  Britain  they  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the 
surrounding  regions.  But  we  have  no  evidence  whatever  for 
believing  that  such  was  the  case  within  the  historical  period. 
By  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  when  the  first  missionaries 
arrived  in  this  country,  they  had  apparently  ceased  to  be  a  sea- 
faring people,  and  we  have  no  record  of  any  voyage  made  by 
an  Englishman  across  the  North  Sea  for  several  centuries. 
Again,  the  Danes  became  familiar  to  the  west  of  Europe  during 
the  sixth  century  ;  but  from  about  580  onwards  we  hear  no  more 
of  their  presence  on  the  North  Sea  for  fully  two  centuries. 
During  the  whole  of  this  period  their  name  is  heard  of  only 
in  connection  with  the  missionary  expeditions  of  St  Willibrord, 
early  in  the  eighth  century.  I  have  suggested  elsewhere^ 
that  their  temporary  disappearance  was  due  to  the  maritime 
supremacy  held  by  the  Frisians.  At  all  events  we  have  archaeo- 
logical evidence  for  a  considerable  amount  of  communication 
between  southern  Norway  and  the  Frisian  coasts  during  this 
period,  while  for  the  Baltic  such  evidence  is  almost  wholly 
wanting. 

Bearing  these  facts  in  mind  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  the 
information  used  by  Beowulf  was  acquired  before  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century — in  all  probability  we  may  say  considerably  before 
that  date"''.  Next  we  have  to  notice  that  we  have  practically 
no  trustworthy  information  regarding  the  history  of  the  English 
kingdoms  before  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  and  I  think  it 

^    The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.  93,  note. 

^  The  references  quoted  on  p.  41  ff.  preclude  the  possibility  that  these  stories  were 
first  acquired  from  the  Danes,  when  the  latter  again  became  known  in  this  country 
about  the  close  of  the  eighth  century. 


52  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE    POEMS  [CHAP. 

will  be  the  opinion  of  any  attentive  student  of  early  English 
history  that  even  the  best  informed  persons  of  Bede's  time  were 
not  much  better  off  in  this  respect  than  we  ourselves  are.  How 
then  are  we  to  account  for  the  preservation  of  detailed  infor- 
mation regarding  the  early  kings  of  the  Danes  and  Swedes  ? 
The  only  answer  to  this  question,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  is  that  the 
doings  of  such  persons  must  have  become  embodied  in  stories 
which  were  preserved  by  recitation  in  a  more  or  less  fixed  form 
of  words.  Such  recitative  pieces  may  have  consisted  of  poetry 
alone  or  of  poetry  mixed  with  prose,  like  some  of  the  pieces 
contained  in  the  Older  Edda.  If  we  may  trust  the  analogy  of 
what  appear  to  be  the  oldest  pieces  in  this  collection,  such  as 
Volundarkvi?5a  or  HelgakviSa  Hundingsbana  II,  the  speeches 
would  be  given  in  metre,  while  the  connecting  narrative  might 
be  partly  or  wholly  in  prose  and  quite  brief.  We  have  no 
evidence  for  believing  that  the  early  Teutonic  peoples  ever  used 
entirely  prose  narratives,  like  the  Icelandic  and  Irish  sagas,  for 
such  purposes. 

At  all  events  it  seems  to  me  that  if  Beowulf  is  no  older 
than  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  we  are  bound  to  assume 
the  existence  of  earlier  poems  or  narratives  on  the  same  subject. 
Such  pieces  may  of  course  have  been  quite  short,  and  it  is  likely 
enough  that  our  epic  has  made  use  of  more  than  one  of  them. 
One  perhaps  may  have  dealt  with  the  hero's  exploits  at  the 
Danish  court  and  another  with  his  last  adventure,  while  in  the 
scene  between  Beowulf  and  Hygelac  it  is  possible  that  an  older 
poem  has  been  incorporated,  more  or  less  complete,  in  the 
text^ 

But  we  have  yet  to  take  account  of  what  is  perhaps  the 
most  striking  feature  of  the  poem,  namely  the  fact  that,  though 
it  abounds  in  expressions  of  Christian  sentiment,  yet  the 
customs  and  ceremonies  to  which  it  alludes  are  uniformly 
heathen.  Among  these  we  may  mention  the  funeral  ship  in 
V.  27  ff.,  the  offerings  at  the  shrines  in  v.  175  f.,  the  observation 
of  the  omens  in  v.  204  and  the  curious  reference  to  hanging  in 
V.  2444  ff.  {c{.  V.  2939  ff.),  probably  also  the  use  of  the  boar  on 

^  A  different  view  is  taken  by  Schucking,  Beowulfs  Riickkehr  (Studien  zur  engl. 
Philologie,  XXl),  p.  65  ff. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE    POEMS  53 

helmets  (vv.  303  f,  11 1 1  f.,  1286,  I45iff.,  2152)  and  the  burial 
of  the  treasure  (v.  2233  ff.),  together  with  the  curse  imprecated 
on  the  person  who  should  disturb  it  (v.  3069  ff.).  But  most 
important  of  all  are  the  descriptions  of  the  disposal  of  the  dead 
by  cremation  in  vv.  1 108  ff.,  2124  ff.,  3137  ff.  In  the  long  account 
of  Beowulf's  obsequies — beginning  with  the  dying  king's  in- 
junction (v.  2802  ff.)  to  construct  for  him  a  lofty  barrow  on  the 
edge  of  the  cliff,  and  ending  with  the  scene  of  the  twelve 
princes  riding  round  the  barrow,  proclaiming  the  dead  man's 
exploits — we  have  the  most  detailed  description  of  an  early 
Teutonic  funeral  which  has  come  down  to  us,  and  one  of  which 
the  accuracy  is  confirmed  in  every  point  by  archaeological  or 
contemporary  literary  evidenced  Such  an  account  must  have 
been  composed  within  living  memory  of  a  time  when  ceremonies 
of  this  kind  were  still  actually  in  use. 

The  significance  of  these  passages  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  altogether  misapprehended  by  recent  writers.  If  the  poem 
preserves  its  original  form  and  is  the  work  of  a  Christian,  it 
is  difificult  to  see  why  the  poet  should  go  out  of  his  way  in 
v.  175  ff.  to  represent  the  Danes  as  offering  heathen  sacrifices; 
for  not  long  before  he  has  introduced  a  song  of  the  Creation 
at  the  Danish  court,  and  in  the  sequel  Hrothgar  is  constantly 
giving  utterance  to  Christian  sentiments.  Again  why  should 
he  lay  Beowulf  himself  to  rest  with  heathen  obsequies,  described 
in  all  possible  detail,  when  in  his  dying  speeches  (vv.  2739  ff., 
2794  ff.^)  the  hero  has  been  made  to  express  his  faith  and 
gratitude  to  the  Almighty  ?  On  the  other  hand  if  the  poem 
was  originally  a  heathen  work  these  inconsistencies  are  perfectly 
natural.  If  it  was  to  retain  its  place  after  the  change  of  faith 
and  to  be  recited  in  the  presence  of  bishops  or  clergy,  all 
references  to  actual  heathen  worship  or  belief  would  of  necessity 
have  to  be  either  accompanied  by  censure — as  is  the  case  in 
the  homiletic  verses  following  v.  175  ff. — or  else  suppressed 
altogether,  and  their  place  taken  by  expressions  in  accordance 

^  We  may  refer  especially  to  the  account  of  Attila's  funeral  given  by  Jordanes, 
cap.  49  (from  Priscus). 

^  Apart  from  certain  expressions  the  general  tone  of  these  speeches,  especially  the 
last  words  of  all  (v.  2813  ff.),  is  scarcely  Christian  ;  but  they  contain  nothing  which  is 
obviously  opposed  to  Christian  doctrine. 


54  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

with  Christian  doctrine.  Hence  it  seems  to  me  probable  that 
such  expressions  are  frequently  in  the  nature  of  substitutions 
for  objectionable  matter,  rather  than  gratuitous  additions  ;  and 
in  the  same  way  I  would  account  for  the  occasional  survival  of 
ideas  which  appear  to  be  essentially  heathen  S  though  they  are 
cloaked  in  Christian  phraseology.  But  references  to  practices 
such  as  cremation  which,  though  heathen,  had  long  ago  passed 
out  of  use,  would  not  excite  the  same  repugnance  and  conse- 
quently might  be  allowed  to  stand. 

It  may  be  urged"  that  cremation  seems  to  have  lingered  on 
among  the  Old  Saxons  of  the  Continent  until  late  in  the  eighth 
century.  True  :  but  it  is  quite  incredible  that  a  Christian  poet 
should  borrow  from  this  quarter  a  method  of  funeral  for  his 
Christianised  heroes.  If  the  description  of  Beowulf's  obsequies 
stood  alone  a  bare  possibility  might  be  conceded  to  the  sugges- 
tion that  it  had  once  formed  a  poem  by  itself,  unconnected  with 
Beowulf,  and  based  upon  a  traveller's  story.  But  cremation  is 
clearly  regarded  as  the  normal  rite  throughout  the  poem,  apart 
from  the  legendary  story  of  Scyld.  We  have  another  description 
of  it  in  the  episode  dealing  with  Finn  (v.  i  io8  ff.),  and  above  all 
there  is  the  purely  incidental  reference  in  v.  2124  fif. :  "  Yet  when 
morning  came  the  knights  of  the  Danes  could  not  burn  his 
(Aeschere's)  lifeless  form  with  fire,  nor  lay  the  man  they  loved 
on  the  pyre.  She  had  carried  the  body  away,"  etc.  Here  the 
poet  realises  the  significance^  of  the  rite  quite  clearly  and 
consequently  notes  that  the  inability  of  the  Danes  to  carry  it 
out  added  materially  to  their  sorrow.  In  such  a  case  the 
possibility  of  Christian  authorship  seems  to  me  to  be  definitely 
excluded. 

On  the  hypothesis  that  these  descriptions  had  come  down 
from  the  days  of  English  heathenism  all  is  easily  explicable. 
At  the  time  when  the  poem  was  Christianised  it  may  very  well 
not  have  been  known  that  the  rite  of  cremation  was  still 
practised  among   the    heathen    of   the  Continent,  and  in   later 

^  E.g.  in  the  imprecation,  v.  3069  ff.  The  imprecatory  formulae  of  charters  can 
scarcely  be  regarded  as  analogous. 

^  Cf.  Brandl,  op.  cit.,  p.  1003. 

'  The  same  idea  is  frequently  expressed  in  the  Homeric  poems,  e.g.  II.  vn  79  f., 
XXII  342  f.,  XXIII  75  f ,  XXIV  37  f.,  Od.  XI  71  ff.,  etc. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  55 

days  the  verses  of  the  old  poet  would  be  handed  on  in  parrot 
fashion  without  their  significance  being  generally  understood. 
Well  informed  persons  however,  like  Alcuin,  who  had  travelled 
abroad,  perceived  clearly  enough  that,  however  much  coated 
over  with  Christian  phraseology,  the  heroic  poems  were  in 
reality  of  an  essentially  heathen  character. 

Now  cremation  was  widely  prevalent  in  this  country  during 
the  early  days  of  the  Saxon  invasion — a  fact  attested  by 
numerous  cemeteries  especially  in  the  northern  and  midland 
counties,  including  the  valley  of  the  Thames.  But  it  appears 
to  have  become  a  thing  of  the  past  when  the  Roman  missionaries 
arrived  here  ;  otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  absence 
of  any  reference  to  the  custom  in  the  records  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  Indeed  we  may  say  with  safety  that  it  had  passed 
out  of  general  use,  at  least  in  the  southern  half  of  England,  quite 
a  generation  before  this  time ;  for  there  are  scarcely  any  traces 
of  it  to  be  found  in  those  western  districts  which  appear  to  have 
been  conquered  during  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century. 
Consequently,  if  we  are  justified  in  believing  that  the  descriptions 
of  cremation  ceremonies  contained  in  Beowulf  date  from  a  time 
when  the  practice  was  still  remembered,  we  must  conclude  that 
they  were  composed  not  later  than  the  third  or  fourth  decade 
of  the  seventh  century ^ 

But  it  is  not  contended,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  by  any  scholar 
that  the  account  of  Beowulfs  obsequies  belongs  to  the  earlier 
parts  of  the  poem.  It  is  the  final  scene  of  the  story,  it  is  not 
contained  in  any  speech,  and  further  it  is  of  a  thoroughly  epic 
character  and  would  be  quite  out  of  place  in  a  short  lay. 
Hence,  if  the  line  of  argument  which  we  have  been  following 
is  legitimate,  we  shall  be  forced  to  admit  that  though  the  poem 
has  undergone  a  fairly  thorough  revision  in  early  Christian 
times,  it  must  in  the  main  have  been  in  existence  some  time 
before  the  conversion.  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  the 
'  revision '  was  entirely  limited  to  the  religious  element.  Other 
changes  and   additions  may  have  been  made  about  the  same 


*  This  date  does  not  depend  in  any  way  on  the  question  where  the  poem  originated. 
Cremation  may  possibly  have  lingered  in  Northumbria  longer  than  elsewhere  ;  but 
that  kingdom  seems  to  have  become  entirely  Christian  between  626  and  642. 


56  THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

time^  What  I  do  mean  is  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  poem 
must  have  been  in  existence — not  merely  as  a  collection  of  lays 
or  stories,  but  in  full  epic  form — an  appreciable  time  before  the 
middle  of  the  seventh  century. 

The  other  heroic  poems  do  not  furnish  us  with  any  similar 
criteria  for  estimating  the  date  of  their  composition,  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  valid  reason  for  doubting  that  they  are  quite  as 
early.  Two  of  them,  Deor  and  Widsith,  are  expressed  in  the 
first  person  and  lay  claim  to  being  of  a  remote  antiquity.  Deor 
says  that  he  had  been  the  bard  of  the  Heodeningas  and  that 
he  had  been  displaced  by  a  skilful  minstrel  named  Heorrenda. 
Since  in  old  Norse  literature  Hia^ningar  (i.e.  Heodeningas) 
means  '  HeSinn  and  his  men,"^  and  since  Heorrenda  can  hardly 
be  separated  from  the  minstrel  Horand  in  Kudrun,  it  would 
seem  that  the  poet  claims  to  have  been  a  contemporary  of 
HeSinn  and  Hogni,  with  whose  story  we  have  dealt  briefly 
above  (pp.  8  f ,  i6). 

Widsith  is  still  more  explicit.  The  poet  states  that  he 
visited  the  Gothic  king  Eormenric,  who  as  we  know  died  about 
370.  It  is  true  that  incidentally  he  mentions  that  he  had  met 
with  a  number  of  other  princes,  some  of  whom  lived  in  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries ;  but  the  visit  to  Eormenric  is  his  main 
theme.  Eormenric  is  of  course  one  of  the  most  prominent 
figures  of  the  Heroic  Age,  and  it  may  be  for  this  reason — as 
the  type  of  a  powerful  king — that  he  is  chosen  for  the  poet's 
host  and  patron.  But  then  it  is  by  no  means  so  easy  to  see 
why  he  is  associated  with  such  an  obscure  person  as  Eadgils, 
prince  of  the  Myrgingas.  The  suggestion  that  the  poem  is 
founded  upon  a  tradition  that  this  Eadgils  possessed  a  famous 
minstrel  breaks  down  upon  the  name  Widsith,  which  is  obviously 
fictitious  as  we  have  seen  (p.  44).  It  appears  to  me  that 
considerably  less  difficulty  is  involved  in  the  hypothesis  that 
the  kernel  of  the  poem*  is  really  the  work  of  an  unknown  bard 

^  E.g.  possibly  some  of  the  elegiac  passages  (e.g.  vv.  ■2236 — 2270,  2450 — 2464), 
which  show  a  certain  resemblance  to  such  poems  as  the  Ruin  and  the  Wanderer. 

2  The  name  Hegelinge  in  Kudrfin  is  probably  a  corruption  of  Hetelinge  (i.e. 
Heodeningas). 

•'  Presumably  including  vv.  88 — 108;  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  suggest  an  elaborate 
analysis  of  the  poem. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  57 

of  the  fourth  century,  and  that  successive  minstrels  from  time 
to  time  have  added  the  names  of  famous  heroes  with  which  they 
were  acquainted^ — a  process  to  which  the  original  plan  of  the 
poem  may  well  have  offered  inducement. 

However  this  may  be  neither  of  the  poems  shows  any 
characteristics  which  suggest  a  later  date  than  Beowulf  Both 
appear  to  be  constructed  in  strophic  form,  a  feature  rare  else- 
where in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  while  Deor  also  has  a  refrain, 
which  is  almost  without  parallel.  Lastly,  we  have  seen  that 
Widsith  occurs  as  a  personal  name,  apparently  in  the  seventh 
century,  and  that  this  presupposes  the  existence  not  only  of  the 
poem  itself  but  also  of  the  introduction,  which  is  clearly  later. 

The  case  of  Waldhere  stands  somewhat  apart  from  the 
others,  since  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  is  really  a  transla- 
tion of  a  lost  German  poem,  on  which  Ekkehard's  Waltharius 
is  also  based.  That  the  story  came  from  the  Continent  may 
of  course  be  granted  ;  but  we  have  also  to  consider  when  and 
in  what  form  it  was  brought.  The  linguistic  arguments  which 
have  been  adduced  in  favour  of  the  German  origin  of  the  poem 
are  not  now  generally  maintained.  But  it  is  further  to  be 
noticed  that  the  poet  seems  to  have  treated  his  subject  very 
differently  from  Ekkehard.  The  speeches,  with  which  the 
fragments  are  entirely  taken  up,  have  nothing  corresponding 
to  them  in  the  Latin  poem,  while  the  characterisation  of  the 
heroine  is  as  unlike  as  it  well  could  be.  Ekkehard  represents 
her  as  a  timid  creature,  but  in  the  fragments  she  displays  a 
spirit  which  may  fairly  be  called  martial.  It  is  unwise  to  lay 
stress  on  agreements  between  Ekkehard  and  the  fragments  as 
against  the  version  of  the  story  given  in  ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern. 
The  less  complicated  form  of  the  latter — in  which  Guthhere  is 
omitted  and  Hagena  represented  as  an  officer  of  Attila,  pursuing 
the  fugitives — may  be  due  either  to  imperfect  acquaintance  with 
the  story  or,  perhaps  more  probably,  to  the  conditions  under 
which  it  had   been   preserved.     We  shall    see  later  that  for  a 

^  These  lists  are  perhaps  derived  in  part  from  mnemonic  catalogues — '  inventories ' 
of  the  stories  known  to  the  minstrels  who  composed  them.  Metrical  catalogues  of  this 
kind  are  said  to  be  in  use  among  Servian  minstrels  at  the  present  day ;  cf.  Krauss, 
Slavische  Volkforschungen,  p.  i86  ff.,  where  a  specimen  is  given. 


58  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  [CHAP. 

considerable  period  heroic  poetry  appears  to  have  been  entirely 
neglected  by  the  higher  classes  in  Germany  ;  and  it  may  be 
accepted  as  generally  true  that  when  stories  are  preserved  only 
by  the  peasants  complex  situations  tend  to  become  simplified, 
while  all  except  the  most  prominent  characters  drop  out.  As 
for  the  date  at  which  the  story  became  known  in  England  we 
may  note  that  besides  Aetla  and  Hagena,  which  may  come  from 
other  sources,  Waldhere,  Hildegyth  and  Hereric  were  all  names 
current  during  the  seventh  century.  There  seems  therefore  to 
be  no  adequate  reason  for  believing  Waldhere  to  have  had  a 
different  history  from  the  other  heroic  poems. 

On  the  whole,  taking  all  the  poems,  including  Beowulf, 
together,  we  may  conclude  with  probability  that  they  assumed 
substantially  their  present  form^  in  the  course  of  the  seventh 
century.  But  if  our  reasoning  with  regard  to  the  composition 
of  Beowulf  is  correct  we  shall  have  to  refer  the  first  treatment 
of  the  subject  to  the  sixth  century,  i.e.  almost  if  not  quite  to 
the  Heroic  Age  itself  Deor  and  Widsith  may  quite  possibly 
contain  still  older  elements. 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  Old  Norse  poems.  Here  the  data 
at  our  disposal  are  of  a  very  different  character,  for  the  metrical 
evidence  is  said  to  preclude  the  possibility  that  any  of  the 
extant  poems  date  from  before  the  ninth  century.  It  may 
perhaps  be  questioned  whether  all  of  them  are  necessarily  new 
compositions  since  that  time — whether  certain  of  them  may  not 
be  old  poems  somewhat  recast.  To  this  question  however  we 
can  hardly  hope  to  obtain  a  satisfactory  answer. 

The  fragmentary  Ragnarsdrapa  of  Bragi  Boddason,  who 
seems  to  have  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century,  is 
probably  the  earliest  extant  piece  which  refers  to  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age.  In  this  poem  we  find  allusions  both  to  the  story 
of  HetSinn  and  Hogni  and  to  the  attack  made  upon  lormunrekr 
by  HamSir  and  Sorli.  Thiodolfr's  Ynglingatal,  perhaps  half  a 
century  later,  contains  references  to  the  story  of  HagbarSr  and 

^  Waldhere,  Deor  and  Widsith  all  contain  '  Christian '  passages,  like  Beowulf. 
The  interpolations  in  Widsith  (e.g.  vv.  15  f.,  82  ff.)  appear  to  have  been  made  by 
some  one  who  possessed  a  certain  amount  of  erudition ;  but  there  is  no  need  to 
attribute  them  to  a  different  period. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE   POEMS  59 

Signy,  as  well  as  brief  accounts  of  the  Swedish  kings  Ottarr  and 
A8ils,  who  are  mentioned  in  Beowulf  (cf.  p.  20).  All  these 
stories,  except  that  of  Ottarr,  are  told  also  by  Saxo,  but  in  a 
somewhat  different  form,  which  points  to  their  derivation  from 
Danish  rather  than  Norse  sources'. 

On  the  other  hand  the  stories  of  the  Volsungar,  Sigmundr 
and  SigurSr,  are  not  mentioned  by  any  early  Danish  authority. 
The  story  of  Sigur?5r  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  intro- 
duced into  Norway  from  Germany ;  and  in  some  sense  or  other 
this  would  seem  necessarily  to  be  true,  since  in  the  Northern 
version,  as  well  as  in  the  German,  the  scene  is  laid  chiefly  in  the 
Rhineland.  But  it  is  apparently  impossible  to  determine  when 
and  in  what  form  the  story  was  transmitted.  We  have  already 
noticed  that  there  is  archaeological  evidence  for  a  considerable 
amount  of  communication  between  Norway  (not  Denmark)  and 
the  southern  (Frisian)  coasts  of  the  North  Sea  during  the  seventh 
and  eighth  centuries,  and  this  is  clearly  a  factor  which  deserves 
to  be  taken  into  account.  Further,  it  is  worth  noting  that,  with 
the  exception  perhaps  of  Atli"-,  the  names  all  appear  in  regular 
Northern  form',  as  if  they  had  been  known  from  the  earliest 
times,  e.g.  Gunnarr,  Hogni,  Giiiki,  Bu^li.  This  consideration,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  certainly  favours  a  very  early  date  ;  but  it  is 
hardly  conclusive^ 

The  story  of  Sigmundr  stands  on  a  somewhat  different 
footing.  In  the  first  place  Sigemund  (Sigmundr)  himself  is 
little   more  than    a   name   in    German   tradition,  while  though 

^  Cf.  Olrik,  Kildeme  til  Sakses  Oldhistorie,  p.  132. 

2  The  name  appears  to  have  been  quite  common  in  the  North  during  the  Viking 
Age  ;  yet  the  apparent  absence  of  umlaut  suggests  derivation  from  a  (Frisian  ?)  form 
corresponding  to  the  Ang.-Sax.  Aetla  (cf.  Aecci,  Aeddi  beside  Acca,  Adda). 

*  In  contrast  (e.g.)  with  Kftdr^tn,  which  clearly  shows  its  foreign  origin 
(cf.  p.  34). 

*  Such  names  may  have  been  current  before,  though  their  frequent  occurrence  is 
no  proof  of  this  and  may  be  due  to  the  popularity  of  the  heroic  poems.  It  is  perhaps 
worth  noting  that  alliteration  is  shown  by  certain  names  which  are  generally  believed 
to  have  been  introduced  into  the  story  in  Norway  or  Iceland,  e.g.  Oddriin,  Erpr, 
EUill  with  Atli,  Giajlaug,  Gullrbnd  (Gu'Srtln?)  with  Gtuki  and  Gunnarr.  If  we 
may  judge  from  the  genealogies  in  Landnamabok  and  elsewhere  the  principle  of 
alliteration  seems  to  have  been  generally  given  up  in  family  names  before  the  ninth 
century. 


6o  THE   ORIGIN    OF    THE    POEMS  [CHAP. 

Welsung  and  Sintarfizzilo  occur  as  personal  names,  they  are 
not  connected  in  any  way  with  the  story  of  Siegfried.  Again, 
in  the  Helgi  poems,  which  contain  no  reference  to  SigurSr, 
Sigmundr  is  connected  with  the  Baltic,  and  this  is  still  more 
clearly  the  case  with  his  son  Helgi,  who  is  unknown  to  the 
German  story.  Thirdly,  in  Beowulf,  which  knows  Sigemund 
and  Fitela,  though  not  SigurSr,  the  former  is  brought  into 
juxtaposition,  and  apparently  also  into  comparison,  with  a 
Danish  prince  named  Heremod.  The  same  two  persons  are 
brought  together  also  in  the  Old  Norse  poem  HyndlulioS,  while 
the  Hakonarmdl  likewise  seems  to  imply  some  connection 
between  them,  as  I  have  tried  to  show  elsewhere^  Apart  from 
the  passages  specified  this  Herm6t5r  (Heremod)  is  apparently 
not  mentioned  in  Scandinavian  literature,  but  the  facts  noted 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  two  characters  were  connected  in 
poetry  before  English  and  Danish  tradition  became  separated, 
i.e.  presumably  in  the  sixth  century. 

We  have  seen  that  many  of  the  persons  mentioned  in  the 
main  narrative  of  Beowulf  were  remembered  also  in  Scandinavian 
tradition.  But  since  these  persons  are  in  all  probability  to  be 
regarded  as  historical,  it  is  hardly  safe  to  infer  the  existence 
of  ancient  Scandinavian  poems,  unless  the  same  incidents  are 
related  of  them,  which  is  generally  not  the  case.  There  is  a 
rather  striking  verbal  resemblance^  between  the  first  speech  of 
Wiglaf  (Beow.  2633 — 60)  and  certain  passages  in  Biarkamal 
(especially  Saxo's  version),  where  Hialti  is  addressing  Biarki ; 
and  this  fact  is  the  more  noteworthy  if  Biarki  is  really  to  be 
identified  with  Beowulf.  But  the  words  themselves  are  of  a 
somewhat  general  character  and  might  have  been  used  on 
other  occasions.  Again  there  is  a  certain  afifinity^  between 
the  account  of  the  dragon-fight  in  Beowulf  and  that  of  a  similar 
incident  related  of  Frotho  I  by  Saxo  (p.  38  f.) ;  and  here  again 
a  connection  can  be  traced  indirectly  between  the  two  heroes. 
But  the  story  of  Frotho  seems  really  rather  to  resemble  the 
account   given  in   Beowulf  of   Sigemund's   dragon-fight ;  so   it 

1  The  Cult  of  Othin,  p.  5 1  f. 

2  Cf.  Bugge,  Beitrdge,  xii  45  ff. 

^  Cf.  Sievers,  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  zu  Leipzig,  Ber.  1895,  p.  180  if. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE    POEMS  6l 

may  be  questioned  whether  the  points  of  affinity  between  the 
two  did  not  originally  form  part  of  a  standard  description  of 
incidents  of  this  kind. 

A  clearer  case  is  that  of  the  poems  attributed  by  Saxo  to 
Starcatherus,  in  which  that  warrior  exhorts  Ingellus  to  avenge 
his  father.  These  are  clearly  to  be  connected  with  the  speech 
of  the  old  warrior  to  Ingeld  in  Beowulf  (vv.  2047 — 2056),  though 
there  is  little  verbal  resemblance.  Moreover  we  have  seen 
(p.  41  f.)  that  in  Alcuin's  time  poems  dealing  with  Ingeld  were 
known  and  probably  popular  in  England.  The  relationship  of 
the  passage  in  Beowulf  to  these  may  be  compared  with  that  of 
another  passage  (vv.  1068 — 1159)  to  the  fragment  dealing  with 
Finn.  The  poems  on  Ingeld  given  by  Saxo  are  traced  by 
Prof  Olrik^  to  a  Danish  source;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  his  view  is  correct,  as  they  share  the  characteristics  exhibited 
by  other  stories  which  appear  to  come  from  the  same  quarter 
(cf  p.  in).  Thus  the  queen's  name  is  not  given  and  her  brothers 
are  described  simply  as  sons  of  Suertingus.  Further,  the  story 
is  cut  right  away  from  the  surroundings  in  which  we  find  it 
in  Beowulf,  and  it  may  be  that  for  a  time  it  survived  in 
Denmark  only  in  ballad  form.  Yet,  however  much  change  it 
had  undergone  before  it  came  under  Saxo's  treatment,  there 
can  be  little  doubt,  in  view  of  the  English  evidence,  that  its 
origin  is  ultimately  to  be  sought  in  heroic  poetry,  or  at  all 
events  heroic  narrative,  dating  from  the  sixth  century. 

Lastly  we  must  mention  the  story  of  Uffo's  single  combat, 
though,  strictly  speaking,  this  is  probably  not  of  Danish  origin. 
It  was  certainly  well  known  in  England  and  there  is  good 
reason  for  believing  that  its  home  is  to  be  found  in  the  district 
to  which  it  refers,  i.e.  the  neighbourhood  of  Angel,  Slesvig  and 
Rendsburg.  I  have  tried  elsewhere*  to  show  that  this  story 
also  rests  on  historical  foundations.  But  the  details  of  the 
combat,  as  given  by  Saxo  and  Svend  Aagesen,  and  certain 
legendary  features,  such  as  the  dumbness  or  silence  of  the  hero, 
which  are  present  in  both  the  Danish  and  English  versions  of 
the   story,   strongly   favour   the  view   that   it   was  embodied   in 

^   Kilderne  ttl  Sakses  Oldhistorie,  pp.  i8  fif.,  132. 
2   The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.  118  ff. 


62  THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE    POEMS  [CHAP. 

poetic  form  at  a  very  early  period.  On  the  other  hand  there 
is  nothing  to  show  that  such  poems  survived  till  Saxo's  time. 
The  story  is  apparently  unknown  to  all  Norse  authorities. 

Many  of  the  German  poems  which  have  come  down  to  us 
are  known  to  be  derived,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  earlier 
ones,  but  regarding  the  antiquity  of  the  latter  nothing  can  be 
stated  with  certainty.  The  Hildebrandslied,  which  is  the  only 
extant  piece  of  early  poetry,  goes  back  at  all  events  to  the 
eighth  century.  Further,  the  language^  used  by  Einhard  in 
describing  the  poems  collected  by  Charlemagne  (cf.  p.  5  f.)  would 
scarcely  be  appropriate  unless  they  were  believed  to  be  more 
than  a  century  old  by  that  time.  We  may  probably  therefore 
refer  them  at  least  to  the  seventh  century. 

It  seems  likely  that  some  of  the  lost  poems  of  the  Langobardi 
were  of  still  greater  antiquity.  In  the  poem  which  celebrated 
their  victory  over  the  Vandals  (cf  p.  10),  a  story  with  which 
we  shall  have  to  deal  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter,  a  very 
prominent  part  appears  to  have  been  played  by  the  heathen 
gods.  Such  a  piece  can  hardly  have  been  composed  after  the 
end  of  the  fifth  century,  at  which  time  the  Langobardi  were 
already  Christians. 

Regarding  the  antiquity  of  Gothic  heroic  poetry  there  can 
be  no  question,  for  Jordanes,  our  chief  authority  on  this  subject, 
wrote  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  i.e.  during  the 
Heroic  Age  itself.  We  have  already  noticed  (p.  37)  that  his 
account  of  Eormenric  appears  to  be  coloured  by  poetic  tradition. 
But  of  the  heroes  whom  he  enumerates  (cap.  5)  as  celebrated  in 
poetry,  the  only  one  of  whom  we  know  anything,  Vidigoia,  is 
described  as  Gothornni  fortissimus  in  a  quotation  (cap.  34) 
from  Priscus,  who  lived  about  a  century  earlier^  There  is 
good  reason  therefore  for  believing  that  the  Goths  possessed 
heroic  poems  as  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century. 

^  Item  barbara  et  antiquissima  carmina,  quibiis  ueterum  regum  actus  et  bella 
canebantur,  scripsit  tnemoriaeque  mandauit  (Vita  Caroli  Magni,  cap.  •29). 

*  Cassiodorus  (Var.  VIII  9)  states  that  the  Gothic  king  Gensimundus,  who 
according  to  Jordanes  (cap.  48)  reigned  shortly  after  Eormenric's  death,  was  widely 
celebrated  in  poetry  (toto  orbe  cantabilis) ;  but  his  name  is  preserved  only  in  Gothic 
records. 


IV]  THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE   POEMS  63 

We  may  now  sum  up  briefly  the  results  of  our  discussion. 
The  heroic  poetry  of  the  Goths  certainly  belonged  to  the  Heroic 
Age  itself,  and  it  is  more  than  likely  that  certain  Langobardic 
poems  were  nearly  as  old.  Some  heroic  poems  belonging  to 
other  German  peoples  may  probably  be  referred  at  least  to  the 
seventh  century.  The  chief  monument  of  English  heroic  poetry 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  first  half  of  that  century,  while  some 
of  the  other  poems  claim  to  be  of  greater  antiquity.  The  lost 
heroic  poetry  of  the  Danes  seems  to  have  been  occupied  largely 
with  the  same  subjects  as  the  English  poems,  and  since  the 
stories  generally  refer  to  the  Baltic  we  may  reasonably  infer 
that  heroic  poetry  flourished  in  that  region  during  the  sixth 
century.  On  the  whole  then  it  seems  probable  that  the  develop- 
ment of  heroic  poetry  began  in  the  Heroic  Age  itself,  not  only 
among  the  Goths  but  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  Teutonic 
world. 


64  HEROIC   NAMES   IN    ENGLAND  [CHAP. 


NOTE    I.      THE    USE   OF   HEROIC    NAMES 
IN    ENGLAND. 

The  distribution  of  heroic  names  in  English  historical  documents  is  as 
follows.  The  Liber  Vitae  contains  35  {^7),  of  which  nine  (eleven)  are  peculiar 
to  that  work^  Of  those  which  occur  in  other  documents  29 ^  belong  to 
persons  born  apparently  before  700,  six  to  such  persons  only,  14  or  15^  to 
persons  born  between  700  and  800,  two  to  such  persons  only,  and  22* 
to  persons  born  after  800,  four  to  such  persons  only.  It  must  be  remembered 
that,  apart  from  the  Liber  Vitae,  the  materials  for  the  ninth  and  tenth 
centuries  are  much  more  abundant  than  those  for  earlier  times. 

In  the  Liber  Vitae  itself  it  is  possible  within  certain  limits  to  distinguish 
between  persons  of  early  and  later  date.  Investigations  in  the  lists  of  kings, 
queens  and  abbots  have  shown  that  they  are  arranged  chronologically,  and 
it  is  only  reasonable  therefore  to  expect  that  the  same  is  true  of  the  much 
longer  lists  of  clerics  and  monks.  A  brief  examination  of  the  names  will 
make  it  clear  that  such  is  actually  the  case.  Some  modernisms  of  language, 
such  as  -/erl/i  for  -frith,  or  of  orthography,  such  as  -ht-  for  -ct-,  are  practically 
confined  to  the  last  parts  of  the  lists,  which  may  be  by  later  hands^  But 
even  within  the  parts  certainly  written  by  the  first  scribe  archaic  forms  such 
as  -iu-  for  -io-  are  more  frequent  at  the  beginning  of  the  lists  than  later  ;  so 
also  occasional  -b-  for  -f-.  Above  all  we  may  note  the  uncompounded  names 
in  -/,  a  type  common  in  early  Anglo-Saxon,  but  practically  extinct  after  the 
eighth  century.  Fol.  24,  the  first  in  the  clerics'  list,  contains  eleven  such 
names,  while  fol.  30  contains  none  ;  fol.  34,  the  first  in  the  monks'  list,  has 
eight,  while  fol.  38  has  only  one. 

Now  we  shall  probably  be  well  within  the  mark  if  we  assume  that  one 
fifth   of  the  names  in   each  list^  belong  to  persons  born  in  the  seventh 

1  37  (eleven),  if  we  admit  the  emendation  of  the  corrupt  forms  Vychgaz.x\A  Vurmeri 
to  Wydiga  (Widia,  Wudga)  and  Vyrmheri  (Wyrmhere).     See  the  Addenda. 

2  Ecglaf,  Eadgils,  Eomaer,  *Eormenric,  Frod(a),  Hereric,  *Hoc,  *Hrothmund, 
Ingeld,  Offa,  Oslaf,  Sigemund,  *Aehha,  Sigeferth,  Aetla,  *Hagena,  Theodric, 
Waldhere,  Becca,  Witta,  VVada,  Oswine,  Sigehere,  *Sceafthere,  Alewih,  Aelfwine, 
Eadwine,  Wulfhere,  Frithuric ;  perhaps  also  Herebald.  The  asterisk  denotes  names 
limited  to  persons  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries. 

3  Eadgils,  Eanmund,  Ileardred,  Hygelac,  Ingeld,  OfFa,  Wermund,  Weohstan, 
Wiglaf,   Wada,  *Scilling,  Oswine,  Sigehere,  *Gislhere  (perhaps  Eomaer). 

■•  *Aelfhere,  Ecglaf,  Eanmund,  Heremod,  Offa,  Sigemund,  Wermund,  Weohstan, 
Wiglaf,  Wulfgar,  Garwulf,  *Ordlaf,  Sigeferth,  Waldhere,  Becca,  Wada,  *Hun, 
*Hringwald,  Aelfwine,  Eadwine,  Wulfhere,  Frithuric  (possibly  also  Deor). 

^  Only  the  earlier  lists,  those  printed  in  Sweet's  Oldest  English  Texts,  p.  154  if., 
are  taken  into  account. 

8  Lines  159 — 192  and  332 — 362  in  Sweet's  text. 


IV]  HEROIC   NAMES   IN    ENGLAND  65 

century.  On  this  basis  we  find  that  of  the  35  (37)  heroic  names  which  occur 
in  the  Liber  Vitae  nine  (ten)  are  limited  to  persons  of  the  seventh  century  1, 
and  twelve  (thirteen)  to  persons  of  the  eighth  2.  The  total  number  of  names 
in  each  century  (cf.  p.  43)  may  be  obtained  by  comparing  the  evidence  of 
the  Liber  Vitae  with  that  of  the  other  documents  3. 

The  fact  that  so  many  heroic  names  occur  in  the  Liber  Vitae  has  led 
several  writers  to  conclude  that  the  true  home  of  English  heroic  poetry  was 
in  the  north.  But  no  such  inference  is  really  justified  by  the  evidence.  The 
number  of  personal  names  recorded  for  the  south  of  England  during 
the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  is  very  small  ;  yet  it  is  only  here  that 
we  meet  with  persons  called  Eormenric,  Hoc  and  Hagena — names  which 
belong  to  quite  different  cycles  of  story.  Moreover  out  of  the  37  heroic 
names  preserved  in  the  Liber  Vitae  no  less  than  28  occur  in  place-names  in 
various  parts  of  England.  The  frequence  therefore  of  heroic  names  in  the 
Liber  Vitae  is  to  be  attributed  in  part  to  the  great  abundance  of  the  material 
and  in  part  to  its  comparatively  early  date. 

Including  the  evidence  of  the  Liber  Vitae  there  are  fifteen  heroic  names 
which  seem  to  be  borne  only  by  persons  of  the  eighth  century  or  later  times. 
Eight  of  these  however  occur  also  in  place  names*.  Of  the  remaining  seven ^ 
all  except  one  or  possibly  two^  make  their  appearance  during  the  eighth 
century.  On  the  other  hand  it  has  already  been  mentioned  that  not  less 
than  nineteen  heroic  names'^  occur  only  in  local  nomenclature. 

We  have  still  to  mention  a  few  heroic  names  which  are  not  found  in  the 
extant  remains  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  Theodhere  (Diether)  is  known  only 
from   the   sixth   century,    Hild,    Herding,   luring,   Omoling   only  from   the 

1  tBeowulf,  tBilling,  fFolcwald,  Frod,  Heremod,  Hereric,  Oslaf,  fWidsith, 
Alewih  (fWidia?).     Names  marked  with  a  dagger  are  confined  to  the  Liber  Vitae. 

2  Eadgils,  tHildeburg,  fHrothwulf,  Wiglaf,  Wulfgar,  Garwulf,  Aetla,  Witta, 
tHeathuric,  Sigeferth,  Wulfhere,  Frithuric  (fWyrmhere?).  The  following  names 
are  found  both  in  the  early  and  late  parts  of  the  lists  :  Eanmund,  fHama,  Heardred, 
Hygelac,  Ingeld,  Oflfa,  Sigemund,  Wermund,  Theodric,  Wada,  Aelfwine,  Eadwine, 
fAegelmund ;  perhaps  also  Herebald,  if  the  abbot  of  this  name  is  to  be  identified 
with  the  one  mentioned  by  Bede  {H.  E.  v  6). 

^  For  the  details  see  the  preceding  notes. 

*  Hildeburg,  Hrothwulf,  Wiglaf,  Wulfgar,  Ordlaf,  Hun,  Hringwald,  Gislhere. 

'  Aelfhere,  Weohstan,  Garwulf,  Scilling,  Heathuric,  Wyrmhere  (?),  Dior. 

^  Aelfhere  and  Dior.  The  latter  (in  the  form  Diar)  occurs  only  once  (Birch, 
Cart.  Sax.  497)  and  may  be  a  mistake  for  Diara  {ib.  507).  The  name  Diora  need 
not  be  of  heroic  origin  ;  it  may  be  an  abbreviation  from  such  names  as  Diorwald, 
Diornoth. 

7  Breca,  Finn,  Fitela,  Hengest,  Hnaef,  Hrethel,  Scyld,  Weland,  Guthhere,  Geat, 
Gifeca,  Heoden,  Helm,  Wald,  Beaduca,  Frithla,  Secca,  Gifeca — to  which  we  may  add 
Waelse  in  Walsingaham.  Widia  is  also  to  be  added,  if  it  is  not  allowed  for  the  Liber 
Vitae.  For  the  list  of  place-names  (not  the  personal  names)  I  am  dependent  upon 
Binz,  Beitr.  xx   141 — 223. 


66  HEROIC   NAMES    IN    ENGLAND  [CHAP. 

seventh,  Hildegyth  and  Blaedla  from  the  seventh  and  eighth,  Wulf heard 
from  all  periods,  Ecga  only  from  the  eighth  century,  Ecgheard  from  the 
eighth  and  ninth,  Sigesteb  only  from  the  ninth.  Hild,  Wulfheard  and  Ecga 
are  found  also  in  place-names.  In  some  of  these  cases,  e.g.  in  that  of 
Hildegyth,  the  non-occurrence  of  the  name  in  the  poems  is  clearly  due  to 
mere  accident ;  but  it  would  scarcely  be  safe  to  assume  that  all  these 
characters  were  celebrated  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry. 


NOTE    II.      ON    THE    DATING   OF   CERTAIN 
SOUND-CHANGES    IN    ANGLO-SAXON. 

In  my  Studies  in  Old  English^,  published  in  1899,  I  endeavoured  to 
formulate  a  scheme  for  dating  approximately  the  chief  sound-changes  which 
took  place  in  English  during  the  first  few  centuries  after  the  invasion  of 
Britain.  In  the  course  of  these  investigations  I  was  led  to  the  following 
conclusions  (pp.  riy,  253  ff.)  :  i.  that  'palatal  umlaut'  in  Northumbrian  and 
the  dialect  of  the  Vespasian  Psalter  took  place  before  650  ;  ii.  that  the 
change  from  ae.  \.o  e  (in  all  dialects  except  West  Saxon)  was  in  operation 
about  650 — 680  ;  iii.  that  the  loss  of  intersonantal  h  (in  all  dialects)  belongs 
to  the  same  period  or  a  little  later  ;  iv.  that  contraction  through  loss  of 
intervocalic  //  may  be  dated  roughly  between  680—710;  v.  that  the  loss  of 
final  -u  after  long  syllables  and  in  words  of  the  form  -  -  ~-  took  place  in  all 
dialects  at  a  time  approximately  contemporaneous  with  the  operation  of 
palatal  umlaut  in  Northumbrian  (i.e.  before  650). 

Prof.  Morsbach  in  his  paper  Zur  Datierung  des  Beowulfepos'^  has  dealt 
with  several  of  the  same  problems  and  come  to  conclusions  which  differ 
widely  from  those  at  which  I  arrived.  The  chief  differences  are  as  follows  : 
i.  that  after  a  long  syllable  which  bore  the  chief  accent  -u  was  not  lost  before 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  though  after  a  long  '  nebentonig '  syllable 
the  loss  was  somewhat  earlier  (p.  261  f )  ;  ii.  that  intervocalic  h  was  lost  in 
Kentish  by  about  680,  but  in  Mercian  and  Northumbrian  the  same  change 
cannot  be  shown  to  have  taken  place  before  about  700  (p.  264)  ;  iii.  that 
postconsonantal  h  (before  vowels)  was  retained  in  Kentish  in  679  ;  its  loss, 
at  least  in  Mercian  and  Northumbrian,  may  be  dated  about  700,  but  after  the 
loss  of  -u  (p.  265).  In  summarising  the  results  of  his  discussion  (p.  273)  he 
gives  "  about  700  "  for  the  loss  of  postconsonantal  h  and  "  shortly  before  700  " 
for  the  loss  of -w.  Incidentally  he  follows  Biilbring  {Elementarbuch,  §§  146, 
528)  in  dating  the  origin  of  e  (from  'West  Germ.'  a)  before  the  breaking, 
and  in  placing  the  loss  of  h  before  /  (in  neolaecan)  anterior  to  the  operation 
of  'palatal  umlaut'  (monophthongisation). 

1  Transactions  of  the  Cambridge  Philological  Society,  Vol.  iv,  Part  II.  The  page- 
references  are  to  the  figures  in  the  outer  corners. 

2  Nachrichten  von  der  Konigl.  Gesellsckaft  der  Wissenschaften  zu  Gbttingen,  1 906, 
pp.  251—277- 


IV]  THE   DATING   OF   CERTAIN    SOUND-CHANGES  6/ 

The  importance  of  this  discussion  for  our  present  purpose^  Hes  in  the 
dates  proposed  for  the  loss  of  -u  and  of  postconsonantal  h.  Prof.  Morsbach 
concludes  that  Beowulf  cannot  have  been  composed  before  700,  since  it 
contains  a  number  of  half- verses  w^hich  would  have  been  metrically  impossible 
before  the  operation  of  these  changes,  e.g.  ofer  fealone  floditi),  to  widan 
feor{h)e.  I  have  already  expressed  scepticism  as  to  whether  such  inferences 
are  really  justifiable.  This  applies  more  particularly  to  the  verses  affected 
by  the  question  of  postconsonantal  h,  which  are  quite  few  in  number.  The 
date  which  Prof.  Morsbach  himself  (p.  274)  proposes  for  the  composition  of 
Beowulf  is  700 — 730.  He  finds  no  difficulty  in  reconciling  this  with  the 
statistics  (given  above,  p.  45)  for  the  use  of  the  article.  This  seems  to  me 
rather  strange ;  yet  the  opinion  of  a  scholar  who  stands  in  such  deservedly 
high  estimation  cannot  lightly  be  disregarded. 

Now  let  us  examine  the  evidence  on  which  these  conclusions  are  based. 
First  it  will  be  convenient  to  take  the  loss  of  A.  Prof.  Morsbach  holds  that 
in  Kentish  intervocalic  h  was  lost  before  postconsonantal  h.  The  evidence 
is  derived  from  a  single  charter  issued  by  King  Hlothhere  in  679  (Birch, 
Cart.  Sax.  45),  which  contains  the  place-name  Vtiestan  ae  beside  the 
personal  name  Velhisci  (Latin  Gen.).  But  surely  conclusions  of  this  kind  are 
admissible  only  when  a  number  of  examples  can  be  adduced.  On  the  same 
principle  we  might  argue  from  the  name  Irininredi  (in  the  same  charter)  that 
the  change  se  >  e  had  taken  place  and  also  from  the  name  Aedibnaeri  (again 
in  the  same  charter)  that  it  had  not.  And  what  should  we  do  with  the 
earliest  East  Saxon  charter  (Birch,  81),  in  which  the  grantor  is  called  both 
Oedelraedus  and  Ho{di)lredusl  Again,  it  is  clear  that  Bede  wrote  his  own 
name  Baeda  ;  but  will  anyone  venture  to  hold  that  this  represents  the  current 
pronunciation  of  his  name  in  731 — or  indeed  for  some  half  a  century  earlier.'' 
In  personal  names  we  must  clearly  allow  for  traditional  orthography.  The 
form  Irininredi  may  no  doubt  be  used  as  evidence  for  the  change  ee.  >  t\  and 
similarly  the  form  Vuestan  ae  may  be  used  as  evidence  for  the  loss  of  h.  But 
forms, especially  personal  names, like  Velhisci zxvdi  Aedilniaeri,\^\\\c\\  must  long 
have  been  in  use,  may  very  well  show  an  antiquated  orthography — one  which 
correctly  represented  the  pronunciation  of  thirty  or  forty  years  previously. 
A  single  instance  of  such  a  kind  is  totally  insufficient  ground  for  supposing 
that  the  Kentish  dialect  treated  postconsonantal  and  intervocalic  h  differently. 

Next  we  must  consider  the  date  given  for  the  loss  of  h  in  Mercian  and 
Northumbrian  (p.  263  f ).  I  find  some  difficulty  here  in  following  Prof. 
Morsbach's  line  of  argument.  In  Northumbrian  there  is,  admittedly,  no 
evidence  at  all  for  the  preservation  of  h,  while  cases  of  its  omission  are 
numerous  in  Bede's  History  (written  in  731),  in  addition  to  one  or  two 
instances  in  probably  earlier  authorities.     For  Mercian^  we  are  dependent 

^  Prof.  Morsbach's  paper  raises  a  number  of  questions  besides  those  mentioned 
above.  But  I  am  obliged  here  to  confine  my  attention  to  those  which  have  a  bearing 
on  the  dating  of  Beowulf. 

^  The  application  of  this  term  to  the  Epinal  and  Erfurt  glossaries  (or  the  arche- 
type) seems  to  me  to  be  open  to  grave  objection. 


68  THE   DATING   OF   CERTAIN   SOUND-CHANGES       [CHAP. 

on  the  Epinal,  Erfurt  and  Corpus  glossaries,  the  archetype  of  which  is 
placed  before  700  by  Prof.  Morsbach.  In  my  Studies,  p.  232,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  this  archetype  the  cases  of  retention  and  omission  of  h 
were  probably  about  equal  in  number.  Prof.  Morsbach  replies  that  there  is 
no  necessity  for  such  a  conclusion,  since  all  the  extant  glossaries  themselves 
date  from  times  when  h  was  already  lost.  He  himself  decides^  against  the 
loss  of  h  in  the  archetype  for  two  reasons  :  (i)  because  postconsonantal  and 
intervocalic  h  are  treated  alike  in  the  glossaries  and  the  former  was  still 
retained  in  Kentish  when  the  archetype  was  written 2;  (2)  because  the 
assumption  of  such  an  early  date  for  the  loss  of  h  would  be  incompatible 
with  his  own  date  for  the  loss  of  -u.  The  first  of  these  arguments,  it  will  be 
seen,  rests  upon  the  dating  of  the  loss  of  postconsonantal  h  in  Kentish,  on 
which  enough  has  been  said  above.  The  second  depends  upon  a  hypothesis 
which  we  shall  have  to  consider  presently. 

My  reason  for  concluding  that  the  loss  of  h  occurred  in  the  archetype 
was  that  in  at  least  eight  entries  (probably  several  more)  all  three  glossaries 
agree  in  showing  forms  without  h.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  these 
glossaries  we  are  dealing  not  with  independent  documents  but  with  copies 
made,  more  or  less  mechanically,  from  one  original.  This  remark  applies  of 
course  much  more  to  Epinal  and  Erfurt  than  to  Corpus  ;  for  in  the  latter  the 
materials  have  been  rearranged,  as  well  as  augmented  from  other  sources, 
while  incidentally  the  forms  have  been  modernised  to  a  considerable  extent. 
In  Epinal  such  modernisation  is  not  unknown,  but  it  is  restricted  within  very 
narrow  limits,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  use  of  ^  and/^.  Further,  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  we  have  no  ground  for  assuming  the  language  of  the  arche- 
type itself  to  have  been  consistent.  The  occurrence  of  numerous  Dative 
forms  and  of  expressions  containing  more  than  one  word  (e.g.  per  atiticipa- 
tionem — \orch  obst)  shows  that  the  materials  were  derived  largely  from 
glosses  in  books,  just  as  in  the  Leiden  glossary*.  Many  of  these  glosses 
may  have  been  written  a  generation  or  more  earlier  than  the  compilation  of 
the  archetype  glossary.  Whoever  bears  these  facts  in  mind  and  at  the  same 
time  compares  the  evidence  for  forms  with  and  without  h  with  that  for/"  and 
b  will,  I  think,  be  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  forms  with  h  do  not 
represent  the  pronunciation  of  the  compiler  of  the  archetype,  but  that  they 
were  taken  over  by  him  from  earlier  sources. 

^  If  I  have  interpreted  his  meaning  correctly.  But  I  admit  that  I  have  had  great 
difficulty  in  understanding  the  argument  in  paragraph  5  of  p.  263  (especially  the 
"mit  -h-"  of  line  12). 

2  Prof.  Morsbach  seems  to  regard  Kentish  as  exceptional  in  its  treatment  of 
intervocalic  k,  rather  than  in  that  of  postconsonantal  k.  I  am  not  quite  clear  as  to 
his  reason  for  this. 

'  Cf.  Studies  in  Old  English,  p.  240. 

*  This  text  represents  a  more  primitive  type  of  glossary  than  the  others  and,  though 
it  is  not  an  ancestor  of  theirs,  it  has  without  doubt  used  a  considerable  number  of  the 
same  glosses  (especially  in  Sweet's  §  XLv)  which  were  incorporated  in  their  archetype. 


IV]  THE   DATING   OF   CERTAIN    SOUND-CHANGES  69 

Now  we  may  take  the  evidence  for  the  proposed  date  of  the  loss  of  -ti. 
After  enumerating  (p.  253  fif.)  a  Hst  of  cases  which  have  been  suggested  by 
various  scholars  Prof.  Morsbach  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only 
certain  example  of  a  form  in  which  -it  is  retained^  is  the  vjorA /lodu  in  the 
inscription  on  the  Franks  casket.  As  the  whole  theory  largely  depends  on 
the  value  attached  to  this  form  we  must  consider  it  carefully.  In  my  Studies, 
p.  156,  I  suggested  that  it  should  be  regarded  as  an  archaism  and  at  the 
same  time  pointed  out  that  -u  is  lost  in  another  word  {imneg)  in  the  same 
inscription.  Prof  Morsbach  rejects  this  explanation  of  unneg,  which  he 
connects,  rightly,  I  think  now,  with  O.  Sax.  nah.  But  this  form  can  come 
perfectly  well  from  *ndh{'w)u  (earlier  *nehwo),  if  not  from  *ndh'wa  (cf.  Goth. 
nehwa,  nehw).  That  Ang.-Sax.  neah,  neh  has  lost  an  2/-sound  is,  I  contend, 
shown  not  only  by  the  Gothic  forms,  but  also  by  neolaecan  and  tieowest  (cf. 
Lind.  ^^wMwaJ),  etc.).  Prof  Morsbach  rejects  my  explanation  of  these  forms 
also  and  adopts  that  of  Prof.  Biilbring,  as  stated  above.  But  the  latter  is 
untenable  ;  for  if  e  (from  a)  had  come  into  existence  before  the  operation  of 
breaking,  we  should  never  find  forms  with  ae,  which  as  a  matter  of  fact  are 
fairly  common  in  the  earliest  texts  of  all  dialects.  In  particular  we  may  note 
that  the  three  extant  coins  of  the  Mercian  king  Aethelred  (675 — 704)  all  have 
-raid.    Hence  the  change  ae,  >  e  can  hardly  have  taken  place  much  before  650. 

Apart  from  iinneg"^,  there  are  three  forms  on  the  recently  discovered  right 
side  of  the  casket  which  may  show  loss  of  -u.  Prof.  Napier  {An  English 
Miscellatiy,  p.  375  f.)  is  inclined  to  regard  the  forms  sxr  and  daen  (?),  if  not 
also  /los,  as  Nom.  sg.  fem.  But  the  interpretation  of  this  part  of  the  inscrip- 
tion is  still  uncertain  in  many  details. 

I  confess  that  since  the  discovery  of  the  new  side  I  am  less  inclined  to 
regard  the  iormjiodu  as  an  archaism  than  as  a  mere  blunder.  Even  in  the 
more  intelligible  parts  of  the  inscription  we  find  a  number  of  forms  which 
present  serious  difficulty  :  Romwalus,  Reumivalus'^,  gasric,  Giu\easu.  The 
last  of  these  still  seems  to  me  to  present  the  best  illustration  oi  Jlodn.  If  the 
one  is  due  to  the  loss  of  some  letters — e.g.  su  for  suiinsR) — the  same  may 
be  the  case  with  the  other*.  At  all  events  an  inscription  which  presents  so 
many  difficulties  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  safe  authority  on  which  to  base  a 
scheme  for  the  chronology  of  sound-changes. 

The  only  other  instance  of  -u  on  which  Prof.  Morsbach  lays  any  weight 

^  The  form  scanomodu  on  the  solidus  need  not  be  taken  into  account.  It  is 
improbable  that  coins  of  this  type  were  minted  after  the  sixth  century. 

-  Prof.  Morsbach  further  argues  that  even  if  my  interpretation  of  unneg  was 
correct  it  would  prove  nothing,  since  -u  was  probably  lost  after  a  long  '  nebentonig ' 
syllable  earlier  than  after  a  long  '  haupttonig '  syllable.  But  neither  the  -gar  of  the 
Bewcastle  inscription  (cf.  p.  70)  nor  the  felt  of  the  East  Saxon  charter  can  be 
admitted  as  evidence  for  this  hypothesis. 

'  In  spite  of  what  is  said  by  Prof.  Morsbach  (p.  264  f.)  these  forms  are  scarcely 
intelligible  unless  h  was  already  lost. 

■*  E.g.  perhaps  flod  u(p)aho/. 


•JO  THE   DATING   OF   CERTAIN    SOUND-CHANGES      [CHAP. 

is  the  form  aetgaru  in  the  Erfurt  glossary.  He  speaks  of  it  as  'nicht 
unwahrscheinlich  '  (p.  257),  though  'fraglich  '  (p.  264).  Many  scholars  cite  it 
as  an  example  of -«  without  reserve.  Now  in  order  to  form  a  just  estimate 
of  the  value  of  any  form  which  occurs  in  the  glossaries  it  is  obviously 
necessary  to  take  it  in  connection  with  the  forms  which  the  other  texts  show 
in  the  same  entry.  The  entry  in  question  {franiea — aetgaru)  occurs  in  the 
Epinal  and  Corpus  glossaries,  as  well  as  in  that  of  Erfurt,  though  the  two 
former  have  aetgaeru  {setgaeni)  for  aetgaru.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  relationship  between  the  three  glossaries  is  as  follows  : 

X  (Arch.  I) 


y  (Arch.  II) 

Epinal  Erfurt         Corpus 

though  we  do  not  know  exactly  how  many  intermediate  stages  lie  between 
the  extant  texts  and  the  original  archetype.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
question  at  issue  is  whether  the  Erfurt  glossary  or  the  other  two  have  kept 
the  original  form — for  if  the  archetype  had  contained  both  forms  we  may 
assume  that  some  trace  of  the  double  entry  would  have  been  preserved  (as  in 
other  cases).  Now  the  Erfurt  glossary  is  the  latest  of  the  three,  it  is  the 
work  of  a  foreign  scribe  and  it  is  very  carelessly  copied.  Moreover,  no 
letter  or  combination  of  letters  has  suffered  more  than  ae.  Most  usually  this 
combination  has  been  reduced  to  e  ;  but  the  loss  of  e  is  not  infrequent, 
e.g.  smal,  hrad^  nacthegelae .  In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  unintelligible  to  me 
how  anyone  can  uphold  the  evidence  of  the  Erfurt  glossary  against  the  other 
two.  But  in  this  case  it  is  used  to  prove  the  existence  of  an  archaic  form  for 
which  none  of  the  glossaries  elsewhere  present  a  parallel.  Lastly,  we  may 
remark  that  though  it  is  frequently  assumed  that  the  word  ^ar  was  an  «-stem 
{*gaizu-)  no  evidence  worth  consideration  has  ever  been  adduced  to  prove 
it^.  On  all  grounds  therefore  we  are  brought  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
evidence  for  the  preservation  of  -u  in  aetgaru  is  not  merely  open  to  question 
but  entirely  worthless. 

We  must  now  notice  certain  early  documents  in  which  -7t  is  clearly  lost. 
Prof  Morsbach  mentions  the  form  felt  in  the  earliest  East  Saxon  charter 
(Birch,  81),  which  dates  from  692 — 3.  Here  then  -u  was  lost  before  the  date 
in  question^.  But  we  can  get  back  further  than  this,  for  the  place  mentioned 
is  called  Vuidnnindes  felt.  Some  considerable  time  must  have  elapsed  after 
the  loss  of  -u  before  a  noun,  even  a  proper  name,  could  change  its  inflection 
and  adopt  the  endings  of  <z-stems. 

^  The  place-name  Wihtgarabyrg  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  ann.  530  (B,  C),  544 
(A,  B,  C)  is  more  probably  to  be  regarded  as  a  corruption  of  Wihtwara-  through 
the  influence  of  the  personal  name  Wihtgar. 

*  Prof.  Morsbach's  explanation  is  that  felt  here  is  a  long  nebentonig  syllable.  But 
we  have  no  evidence  that  the  influence  of  '  sentence-accent '  made  itself  felt  in  this 
way. 


IV]  THE   DATING   OF   CERTAIN    SOUND-CHANGES  /I 

Next  let  us  take  the  Northumbrian  evidence.  The  form  -gar  on  the 
Bewcastle  column  can  prove  nothing.  In  the  same  inscription  however  we 
may  find  an  example  in  Cyniburug ;  for  in  view  of  hnutu  etc.  it  is  probable 
that  consonantal  stems  used  what  was  originally  the  Accus.  sg.  form  also  for 
the  Nom.  sg.  (as  in  Old  Norse).  I  cannot  see  any  probability  in  the  sugges- 
tion that  this  monument  may  date  from  some  considerable  time  after  670 ^,  if 
it  has  been  rightly  interpreted. 

More  important  is  the  fact  that  no  example  of  -u  after  a  long  syllable  is 
preserved  in  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  Bede 
seems  to  have  scrupulously  followed  the  orthographical  peculiarities  of  the 
documents  which  he  used.  Thus  in  Papal  letters  dating  from  the  first  half 
of  the  seventh  century  we  find  such  forms  as  Adilbercto^  Audubaldi  which 
are  not  used  elsewhere  in  the  work^.  Now  in  the  record  of  the  proceedings 
at  the  Council  of  Hertford  in  673,  which  is  quoted  in  iv  5,  we  find  the  forms 
Herul/ord,  Vilfrid,  Vynfrid,  Hrofaescnestir ;  and  in  the  similar  record  for 
the  Council  of  Hatfield  in  680,  quoted  in  iv  17,  we  find  the  form  Haethfelth. 
If  -u  had  not  been  lost  by  this  time  the  forms  used  must  have  been  -fordu  or 
•fordus,  Vil/ridu{s),  etc.,  and  it  is  most  unlikely,  in  view  of  Bede's  practice 
elsewhere,  that  he  would  have  altered  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  latter 
of  these  documents  contains  two  forms — Hymbrojunsium  (or  Htimbr-)  and 
Esfranglorum — which  are  not  used  elsewhere  by  Bede.  Again,  the  same 
author  almost  always  writes  the  name  of  the  Northumbrian  king  Ecgfrith 
(r.  671—685)  as  Ecgfrid  {ys\  the  Nom.).  That  this  represents  the  contem- 
porary orthography  is  shown  by  a  coin  of  that  king  which  bears  the  legend 
Ecgfrid  rex. 

But  further,  there  is  a  whole  series  of  names,  much  used  in  Northumbria, 
which  have  as  their  second  element  -hae\  from  earlier  -ha^u  (e.g  Eadhaed). 
At  the  time  when  -u  was  lost  here  the  change  a  >  as  was  clearly  still  opera- 
tive. Will  anyone  suggest  that  this  was  the  case  after  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century .?  Again,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  form  Osuiu.,  if 
not  also  Osuald,  represents  the  pronunciation^  current  in  the  time  of  that 
king.  In  Bede's  History,  ill  29,  we  have  extracts  from  a  Papal  letter 
addressed  to  Osuiii  (v.  1.  Osuio)  regi  Saxoiium.  The  form  os-  can  scarcely 
have  become  current  in  compounds  before  -u  was  lost  in  the  Nom., 
Accus.  sg. 

It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  enter  into  further  details.     We  have  seen  that 

'  Prof.  Morsbach  would  assign  the  monument  to  the  time  of  Aldfrith,  who  reigned 
685 — 705  (not  725,  a  printer's  error  in  Vietor's  book). 

^  In  his  own  narrative  of  course  he  often  uses  forms  which  must  have  been 
antiquated  in  his  time  (e.g.  Vurtigerno,  Aedidni,  Aeodbaldo)  and  also  foreign  forms  in 
the  names  of  persons  of  Continental  origin  (e.g.  Agilberctus).  But  it  may  safely  be 
assumed  that  all  these  cases  are  derived  from  earlier  documents. 

^  I.e.  Oswiu  (Oswald) ;  cf.  Baduuini,  i.e.  Baduwini.  I  have  not  taken  account  of 
the  possibility  that  -uiu  originally  contained  an  -h-.  If  that  could  be  proved  the 
present  discussion  would  be  practically  superfluous. 


72  THE    DATING   OF   CERTAIN    SOUND-CHANGES       [CHAP. 

practically  the  whole  evidence  for  the  proposed  chronology  consists  of  two 
forms,  Vclhisci  and  Jlodu^  one  of  which  is  incapable  of  proving  what  it  is 
meant  to  prove,  while  the  other  is  of  exceedingly  doubtful  value  ;  and  on  the 
other  iiand  that  this  chronology  has  opposed  to  it  a  large  number  of  forms 
in  the  glossaries,  in  charters  and  in  early  Northumbrian  authorities  of  various 
kinds.  Now  let  us  consider  the  various  sound-changes  in  relation  to  one 
another. 

It  is  admitted,  and  necessarily  so,  that  the  loss  of  -ii  took  place  before  the 
loss  of  h.  For  the  sake  of  convenience  we  may  apply  the  terms  '  Period  I ' 
to  times  anterior  to  the  loss  of  -u  and  '  Period  II '  to  the  interval  between  the 
two  changes.  From  neither  of  these  periods  have  we  any  texts  surviving, 
unless  we  are  to  reckon  the  inscription  on  the  Franks  casket  to  Period  I. 
Our  earliest  charters,  and  apparently  also  the  lost  archetype  of  the  glossaries, 
were  composed  at  a  later  time  ('Period  111')  when  //  was  no  longer  pro- 
nounced, though  doubtless  often  written.  But  before  the  date  of  the  earliest 
extant  glossary  (Epinal)  a  further  change  or  changes  had  taken  place  which 
brought  about  the  confusion  of  original  t  and  f.  It  is  clear  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  glossaries  that  this  confusion  was  later  than  the  loss  of  h 
and  also  that  it  was  almost,  if  not  entirely,  unknown  to  the  archetype.  So 
also  in  Northumbrian.  In  Bede's  History  we  have  no  instance  of  ^  preserved 
in  an  English  word,  whereas  examples  of  its  omission  are  numerous.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  clear  that  Bede  usually  retained  the  distinction  between 
b  (i.e.  t)  and  /  although  the  latter  has  already  largely  encroached  on  the 
former  in  the  Moore  MS.^  We  may  therefore  constitute  two  subdivisions  of 
the  period  subsequent  to  the  loss  of  h,  namely  'Period  III'  prior  to  the 
confusion  of  ^  and^J  and  'Period  IV'  subsequent  to  this  confusion.  Now 
we  can  see  clearly  where  to  date  the  Franks  casket,  for  it  shows  confusion  of 
t  and  f  in  •ay/z/^-according  to  Prof  Morsbach  also  in  sefu.  It  belongs 
therefore  not  to  Period  I  but  to  Period  IV. 

Any  attempt  to  fix  an  absolute  chronology  is  of  course  rendered  difficult 
by  the  absence  of  very  early  texts.  We  may  probably  assume  that  Period  IV 
begins  more  or  less  about  700.  The  Kentish  charter  of  679  falls  in  Period  1 1 1. 
Now  when  -u  was  lost,  h  (whether  intervocalic  or  postconsonantal)  must  have 
been  a  spirant — a  fact  which  Prof.  Morsbach  seems  to  have  entirely  ignored. 
It  is  quite  incredible  that  only  a  few  years  should  elapse  between  that  stage 
and  the  total  loss  of  intervocalic  h  seen  in  the  charter.  The  corresponding 
period  in  Germany  lasted  centuries,  and  I  cannot  conceive  how  the  transition 
can  have  been  accomplished  anywhere  in  less  than  half  a  century.  I  con- 
clude therefore  that  the  dates  which  I  gave  in  my  Studies  were  approximately 
correct.  If  there  was  an  error  it  was  in  putting  some  of  the  changes  slightly 
too  late.  I  have  little  hesitation  now  in  expressing  my  opinion  that  the  loss 
of  -u  took  place  not  later  than  the  second  or  third  decade  of  the  seventh 
century. 

^  Cf.  my  Studies,  p.  247.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  number  of  cases  in  which 
M,  B  and  C  agree  in  f  (for  5)  is  very  small. 


IV]  LITERARY   INFLUENCE   IN    BEOWULF  73 


NOTE   III.     LITERARY    INFLUENCE    IN    BEOWULF. 

I  am  not  aware  that  any  serious  argument  has  been  brought  forward  to 
show  that  Beowulf  was  a  literary  production.  It  is  customary  indeed, 
especially  among  English  scholars,  to  use  the  word  '  write '  with  reference  to 
its  composition  ;  but  this  is  frequently  due  to  mere  carelessness.  Neverthe- 
less there  is  undoubtedly  a  widespread  reluctance  to  admit  that  the  poem 
came  into  existence  without  the  use  of  writing — partly  on  account  of  its 
length  and  partly  because  its  technique  is  of  rather  an  advanced  order. 
The  first  of  these  difficulties  has  now  been  definitely  settled  by  the  Servian 
poems,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  Note.  Here  we  need  concern  ourselves 
only  with  the  second. 

The  most  definite  pronouncement  on  this  subject  known  to  me  is 
contained  in  Prof  Ker's  book,  The  Dark  Ages,  p.  250.  '■'■Beowulf  and 
Waldere"  he  says,  "are  the  work  of  educated  men,  and  they  were  intended, 
no  doubt,  as  books  to  read.  They  are  not,  like  the  Elder  Edda,  a  collection 
of  traditional  oral  poems."  Here  we  have  three  distinct  statements.  That 
Beowulf  and  Waldhere  are  not  a  collection  of  poems,  like  the  Edda,  is 
manifest.  Whether  they  are  traditional  oral  poems  at  all  is  a  different 
question,  the  answer  to  which  depends  in  the  first  place  on  our  attitude  to 
Prof  Ker's  second  statement — that  they  were  intended  as  books  to  read. 
But   this   statement  surely  requires   some   evidence.     The   only  argument 

brought  forward  is  that  "the  Beowulf  ^\s is  intended  as  a  book  to  be 

read,  and  is  got  up  with  some  care.  From  the  look  of  it,  one  places  it 
naturally  in  the  library  of  a  great  house  or  a  monastic  school  ;  and  the 
contents  of  it  have  the  same  sort  of  association  ;  they  do  not  belong  to  the 
unlearned  in  their  present  form."  But,  so  far  as  the  earlier  part  of  this 
passage  goes,  the  argument  applies  only  to  the  tenth  century.  No  one  will 
deny  that  the  earlier  Anglo-Saxon  poems  were  studied  at  that  time  ;  indeed 
they  had  probably  come  to  be  regarded  as,  in  a  sense,  classical.  But  have 
we  any  right  to  assume  that  scholars  of  the  seventh  or  eighth  centuries 
viewed  these  poems  or  their  subjects  in  a  similar  light?  If  so  how  are  we  to 
account  for  the  total  absence  of  references  to  such  subjects  in  the  works  of 
Bede?  And  what  about  Alcuin.''  Quid  Hinieldus  cu7n  Christo?  Is  it 
likely  that  Alcuin  would  have  regarded  these  pagani  et  perditi  reges  as 
suitable  subjects  for  the  attention  of  scholars.-'  The  natural  presumption 
from  his  language  is  that  he  knew  of  them  not  from  literary  works,  but  only 
from  street-minstrels  whom  he  looked  upon  with  disgust.  Yet  Bede  and 
Alcuin  can  hardly  have  been  ignorant  of  any  important  literary  activity 
during  their  times,  and  it  would  be  unfair  to  regard  them  merely  as  religious 
bigots.  In  view  of  their  silence  it  seems  to  me  a  precarious  hypothesis 
even  that  the  poems  were  committed  to  writing  much  before  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century. 


74  LITERARY    INFLUENCE    IN    BEOWULF  [CHAP. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  course  that  the  writing  of  English  was  in  common 
use  during  the  early  part  of  the  ninth  century.  But  the  paucity  of  earlier 
evidence  renders  it  probable  that  this  was  a  recent  innovation  ;  and  the 
orthographical  characteristics  of  eighth  century  documents  point  to  the  same 
conclusion.  Laws  were  written  in  English  from  the  beginning  ;  but  we  may 
safely  assume  that  this  was  done  by  professional  scribes,  in  all  probability 
ecclesiastics.  Otherwise  there  is  little  definite  evidence  for  the  writing  of 
the  vernacular,  except  of  course  in  glosses.  The  more  learned  clergy  clearly 
preferred  to  use  Latin  ;  for  the  less  learned  Bede  states  {Ep.  ad Ecgb.^  cap.  5) 
that  he  had  himself  had  to  make  translations  even  of  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  for  them  to  learn  by  heart.  Where  was  a  reading  public  to  be  looked 
for  in  such  a  period^.'' 

But  we  have  yet  to  discuss  the  statement  that  "  Beowulf  and  Waldere 
are  the  work  of  educated  men."  The  question  here  is  what  is  meant  by  the 
word  'educated.'  Nowadays  the  expression  'educated  Chinese'  is  used  in 
more  than  one  sense.  Sometimes  it  is  applied  to  those  who  have  received  a 
good  education  according  to  the  traditional  standard  of  that  nation.  Some- 
times however,  especially  in  newspaper  language,  it  is  used  only  of  those 
Chinese  who  have  received  a  Western  education.  We  need  not  doubt  that 
the  poets  of  Beowulf  and  Waldhere  were  among  the  best  educated  men  of 
their  day  according  to  the  traditional  native  standard.  If  they  were  court 
minstrels — a  question  we  shall  have  to  discuss  in  the  next  chapter — they 
could  hardly  be  otherwise.  But  this  is  not  what  Prof.  Ker  means.  The 
education  which  he  has  in  view  is  of  foreign  (Roman)  type,  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  latter  part  of  the  second  of  the  quotations  given  above.  Again  (p.  252) 
he  says  :  "The  English  epic  is  possibly  due  to  Virgil  and  Statins  ;  possibly 
to  Juvencus  and  other  Christian  poets,  to  the  authors  studied  by  Aldhelm 
and  Bede."  If  so"'^,  is  it  not  remarkable  that  no  obvious  trace  of  such 
influence  can  be  pointed  out?  It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  poets 
responsible  for  the  composition  or  preservation  of  Beowulf  would  have  any 
inclination  to  disguise  their  knowledge  of  foreign  poetry.  The  use  which 
they  have  made  of  incidents  derived  from  the  Bible  is  decisive  evidence  to 
the  contrary,  although  their  knowledge  of  this  subject  seems  to  have  been  of 
a  most  elementary  description.     In  Widsith  we  actually  have  at  least  one 

'  The  case  of  King  Aldfrith  shows  that  educated  laymen  were  not  entirely 
unknown ;  but  it  is  extremely  unlikely  that  they  were  common.  In  one  charter 
(Birch,  99)  Wihtred,  king  of  Kent,  is  made  to  say:  signum  sanctae  crucis pro  ignorantia 
litterarum  expressi.  This  document  exists  only  in  a  late  copy  ;  but  at  all  events  it 
suggests  that  the  practice  of  making  the  cross,  instead  of  signing,  was  due  to  a  wide- 
spread inability  to  write. 

^  I  confess  that  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  suspect  that  anyone  imbued  with  Latin 
learning  would  have  lacked  not  only  the  inclination  but  also  the  ability  to  compose 
such  a  poem  as  Beowulf.  This  however  is  an  opinion  which  could  only  be  sub- 
stantiated by  a  wider  knowledge  of  the  history  of  poetry  in  various  parts  of  the  world 
than  I  can  make  any  claim  to  possess. 


IV]  LITERARY   INFLUENCE   IN    BEOWULF  75 

reference  to  a  classical  character  (v.  15  ff.).  But  Beowulf  is  entirely  free 
from  anything  of  the  kind. 

Prof  BrandP  has  likewise  been  attracted  by  the  idea  that  the  growth  of 
Anglo-Saxon  epic  poetry  may  have  been  due  to  Latin  models.  As  a  probable 
source  of  such  influence  he  has  fixed  upon  the  Aeneid  and  even  indicated  a 
number  of  passages  in  this  poem  which  may  have  suggested  certain  scenes 
and  incidents  in  Beowulf  Thus  he  notes  that  both  poems  begin  with  the 
story  of  a  wanderer  (Scyld,  Aeneas)  who  came  over  the  sea  {feasceaft,  primus 
et  profugus)  and  founded  a  great  dynasty  or  empire.  Then  he  suggests 
a  connection  between  the  song  of  Hrothgar's  minstrel  on  the  Creation 
(Beow.  90  ff.)  and  a  passage  (Aen.  i  742  fif.)  which  describes  how  Dido's 
minstrel  lopas  sang  of  the  origin  of  men  and  beasts,  among  other  cosmo- 
logical  subjects.  Further,  he  compares  the  whole  of  the  scene  which  contains 
the  latter  passage  with  the  account  of  Beowulf's  reception  at  Heorot,  noting 
the  various  stages  in  the  arrival  of  the  two  heroes  from  their  disembarkation 
to  the  feast  with  which  they  are  welcomed  in  the  palaces.  Incidentally,  he 
remarks  that  at  the  feast  Wealhtheow  hands  the  cup  to  Hrothgar  and  then 
to  the  visitors  (Beow.  615  ff.),  while  Dido  pays  the  same  honour  to  Bitias 
(Aen.  I  738).  Lastly,  he  compares  the  racing  after  Grendel's  overthrow 
(Beow.  864  ff.)  with  the  rowing  contest  in  memory  of  Anchises  (Aen.  v  104  ff.). 

I  confess  that,  coming  as  they  do  towards  the  close  of  an  admirable 
discussion  of  the  subject,  which  no  attentive  student  of  Beowulf  can  fail  to 
appreciate,  the  comparisons  suggested  by  Prof  Brandl  strike  me  as  sur- 
prising beyond  measure.  The  resemblances  between  the  athletic  contests,  so 
far  as  they  have  any  existence  at  all,  are  due  to  practices  which  are  world- 
wide. Is  there  any  reason  for  supposing  that  the  act  of  courtesy  ascribed  to 
Wealhtheow  was  not  in  full  accordance  with  early  Teutonic  custom .'' 
Parallels  may  be  found,  easily  enough,  in  Old  Norse  literature.  The  arrival 
of  the  wanderer  (Scyld,  not  Beowulf)  has  nothing  in  common  with  that  of 
Aeneas.  The  one  is  a  baby  and  probably  alone  ;  the  other  is  the  commander 
of  a  fleet.  Then,  as  to  the  resemblance  between  Beowulf's  visit  to  Hrothgar 
and  Aeneas'  visit  to  Dido,  I  can  only  say  that  I  fail  to  detect  its  existence. 
Prof  Brandl  seems  to  lay  most  stress  on  this  incident  and  points  out 
certain  parallelisms  in  the  language  :  corripuere  uiatn  qua  semita  monstrat 
(Aen.  I  418)  with  stig  wisode  gttmum  aetgaedere  (Beow.  320  f),  and  coram 
quern  quaeritis  adsum  Trains  Aeneas  (Aen.  I  595  f )  with  Beowulf  is  min 
nama  (Beow.  343).  But  are  these  not  purely  accidental  coincidences,  such 
as  one  could  find  between  almost  any  two  narrative  poems  ?  When 
Prof  Brandl  speaks  of  Aeneas'  "  Verhandlung  mit  Dido  zuerst  durch  eine 
etikettegemasse  Mittelsperson,"  I  do  not  understand  what  is  meant. 
Certainly  this  description  applies  to  the  entry  of  Beowulf  But  Aeneas  is 
present  beforehand,  shrouded  in  a  cloud  with  which  Venus  has  covered  him. 
In  the  midst  of  the  scene  the  cloud  is  suddenly  parted  and  Aeneas  disclosed 
to  Dido's  eyes.    It  seems  to  me  that  no  meeting  could  well  be  more  different. 

^  Grundriss  d.  germ.  Philol.,  II  1008. 


76  LITERARY   INFLUENCE    IN    BEOWULF         [CHAP.  IV 

There  remains  then  only  the  fact  that  the  two  minstrels  treat  a  somewhat 
similar  theme  (though  in  Beowulf  this  does  not  take  place  on  the  occasion  of 
the  hero's  arrival).  It  is  no  doubt  a  curious  coincidence  ;  but  the  introduction 
of  such  a  subject  in  Beowulf  may  be  accounted  for  quite  satisfactorily  without 
the  hypothesis  of  any  acquaintance  with  Virgil. 

I  cannot  quit  this  subject  without  remarking  how  much  more  plausible  a 
case  could  be  made  out  for  deriving  Beowulf  frorn  the  Homeric  poems, 
especially  the  Odyssey.  Here  there  are  striking  parallels  both  in  diction 
and  terminology,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  later  chapter.  We  may  note  especially 
the  epithets  applied  to  princes  and  the  formulae  with  which  speeches  are 
introduced.  If  we  wish  to  find  a  real  parallel  to  the  reception  of  Beowulf  by 
Hrothgar,  it  is  provided  by  the  account  of  Telemachos'  visit  to  Menelaos. 
Similar  parallels  are  to  be  obtained  for  the  minstrel's  lays  and  many  other 
incidents.  Are  we  then  to  suppose  that  Beowulf  is  based  upon  the  Odyssey? 
That  is  a  hypothesis  which  I  will  gladly  leave  for  others  to  work  out.  For 
my  own  part  I  prefer  the  explanation  that  similar  poetry  is  the  outcome,  or 
rather  the  expression,  of  similar  social  conditions.  But  in  Beowulf  and  the 
Homeric  poems,  as  against  the  Aeneid,  we  have  additional  common  elements 
in  the  fact  that  the  interest  is  centred  in  the  actual  characters — not  in  the 
destiny  of  their  descendants — and  in  the  vividness  and  reality  of  the 
narratives,  in  spite  of  Grendel,  Scylla  and  the  rest.  The  latter  of  these  two 
common  features  seems  to  me  to  indicate  that  both  the  Greek  and  English 
poets  were  depicting  types  of  life  with  which  they  were  themselves  familiar, 
whereas  no  one  will  dispute  that  the  Aeneid  is  a  product  of  the  library. 

Haifa  century  ago,  when  the  study  of  Teutonic  antiquity  was  still  young, 
there  was  a  general  eagerness  to  refer  every  institution  and  belief  to  a  native 
origin.  To-day  we  see  the  inevitable  reaction — a  hypercritical  attitude 
towards  every  explanation  of  this  character,  coupled  with  a  readiness  to 
accept  theories  of  biblical  or  classical  influence  on  the  slightest  possible 
evidence.  It  is  this  intellectual  atmosphere  which,  naturally  enough,  has 
given  birth  to  the  chimaera  of  a  literary  Beowulf — a  creature  which,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  belongs  to  the  same  genus  as  certain  well-known  theories  in 
Northern  mythology. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY  OF  EARLY  TIMES. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  seen  that  the  persons  and 
events  celebrated  in  the  heroic  poems  apparently  all  belonged 
to  the  fourth,  fifth  or  sixth  centuries,  and  further  that  heroic 
poetry  was  flourishing  among  the  Goths  during  the  same  period. 
For  the  existence  of  English,  Scandinavian  or  German  heroic 
poetry  at  this  time  we  have  no  absolutely  conclusive  evidence. 
But  the  materials  from  which  our  poems  are  formed  must  largely 
be  referred  to  the  sixth  century.  This  may  be  seen  most  clearly 
in  cases  where  the  poems  of  two  or  more  nations  not  merely 
treat  an  identical  theme  but  also  agree  in  the  motif  or  in 
comparatively  small  details,  as  in  the  stories  of  Ingeld,  Waldhere 
and  Svanhildr.  A  like  age  is  probably  to  be  attributed  to 
resemblances  in  language,  such  as  those  shown  by  the  hortatory 
addresses  and  the  accounts  of  dragon-fights  cited  in  the  last 
chapter  (p.  60  f.).  The  fact  that  these  resemblances  sometimes 
occur  in  stories  relating  to  entirely  different  characters  need  not 
prevent  us  from  believing  that  they  spring  ultimately  from  a 
common  origin. 

It  cannot  of  course  be  proved  that  the  materials  from  which 
the  heroic  poems  are  derived  were  themselves  always  in  poetic 
(metrical)  form.  In  principle  we  must  admit  the  possibility 
that  they  were  transmitted  from  one  generation  to  another  in 
a  more  or  less  stereotyped  form  of  prose  narrative,  such  as  we 
find  later  in  the  sagas  of  Iceland  and  Ireland.  But  in  point 
of  fact  we  have  no  evidence  whatever  for  the  cultivation  of  such 
traditional  prose  narratives  among  any  of  the  early  Teutonic 
peoples,  whereas  there  is  good  reason,  as  we  shall  see  shortly. 


78  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY        [CHAP. 

for  believing  that  narrative  poetry  was  both  ancient  and  widely 
cultivated. 

In  the  first  place  we  may  note  that  English  and  German 
poetry  down  to  the  ninth  century  shared  a  common  system  of 
metre  and  that  the  FornyrSislag,  which  is  used  in  most  of  the 
Edda  poems,  differed  but  little  from  this  type,  except  of  course 
that  it  was  always  arranged  in  strophes.  The  application  of 
this  common  metre  to  narrative  purposes  can  scarcely  be  re- 
garded as  a  recent  innovation,  for  English  and  German  poems 
frequently  exhibit  verses  and  half-verses  of  very  similar  con- 
struction. Thus  in  the  Hildebrandslied  speeches  are  generally 
introduced  with  the  formula:  Hadubrant gimahalta,  Hiltibraiites 
sunu,  which  is  almost  identical  with  a  formula  used  in  Beowulf: 
Wiglaf  ina^elode,  Weohstanes  smiii.  In  the  same  German  poem 
(v.  42)  we  find  the  verse  :  dat  sagetun  mi  seolidante  ('it  has  been 
told  me  by  mariners '),  with  which  we  may  compare  Beow.  377  : 
\onne  saegdon  \aet  saeli^ende.  Note  should  also  be  taken  of 
such  phrases  as  (v.  55)  ibu  dir  din  ellen  taoc  ('if  thy  prowess  is 
sufficient ')  and  definitely  poetical  expressions  like  (v.  43)  inan 
wic  fiirnam  ('war  carried  him  off'),  as  compared  with  Beow.  572 
^onne  his  ellen  dealt  and  1080  wig  ealle  fortiam  Finnes  \egnas. 
The  number  of  such  parallels  might  be  greatly  increased  if 
we  were  to  take  into  account  passages  from  religious  poems, 
especially  the  Old  Saxon  Heliand. 

For  a  very  much  earlier  period  direct  evidence  is  furnished 
by  the  Roman  historian  Tacitus,  who  says  {Germ.  2)  that  the 
Germani  possessed  ancient  poems  or  songs  (earmina)  even  in 
his  time  and  adds  expressly  that  they  had  no  other  means  of 
preserving  a  historical  records  That  these  poems  were  partly 
of  what  may  be  called  a  'heroic'  character  is  clear  from  another 
passage  {Ann.  II  88),  where  it  is  stated  that  Arminius  was  still 
a  subject  of  poetry  among  barbarian  nations  {ca7iitur...adhuc 
barbaras  apnd  gefites).  In  both  cases  the  reference  is  in  all 
probability  to  the  peoples  of  western  Germany  rather  than  to 
the  Goths. 

On  the   whole   then    we    need    not    doubt    that    the    heroic 

^  celebrant  carniinibiis  antiquis,   quod  uniim   apud  illos  memoriae   et  annalium 
genus  est,  etc. 


V]  EARLY    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  79 

poetry  which  we  find  in  England  and  Germany  during  the 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries  had  a  long  history  behind  it. 
Of  course  as  to  the  form  of  the  poetry  current  in  the  first 
century  we  are  entirely  without  information.  Many  scholars 
hold  that  it  was  exclusively  choric,  not  only  in  Tacitus'  time 
but  for  four  or  five  centuries  later.  This  is  one  of  the  questions 
which  we  shall  have  to  bear  in  mind  in  the  course  of  our 
discussion. 

The  earliest  historical  reference  to  the  cultivation  of  poetry, 
or  rather  perhaps  minstrelsy,  in  England  occurs  in  Bede's 
account  of  the  poet  Caedmon  {Hist.  Eccl.  IV  24).  In  this 
story  we  are  told  that  it  was  the  custom  that,  when  the  villagers 
met  together  to  drink  and  amuse  themselves,  everyone  should 
take  his  turn  in  singing  to  the  harp.  Caedmon,  who  had  never 
been  able  to  learn  a  song,  used  to  leave  the  festivities  and 
make  his  way  home  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  harp  coming  in  his 
direction^  No  information  is  given  as  to  the  character  of  these 
songs.  Probably  they  would  as  a  rule  be  quite  short — perhaps 
not  much  longer  than  the  hymn  learned  by  Caedmon  from  the 
angel,  which  contains  only  nine  verses.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
they  resembled  some  of  the  metrical  riddles  more  than  any  other 
form  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  which  has  come  down  to  us. 
Longer  songs,  of  a  narrative  type,  may  of  course  have  been 
known.  But  it  is  a  question  whether  such  songs  would  deal 
with  heroic  themes  or  with  folk-tales.  We  may  think  of  the 
Scandinavian  story  of  Svipdagr  and  MengloS,  which  is  preserved 
in  a  number  of  different  versions,  ranging  in  date  probably  from 
the  tenth  century  to  the  seventeenth  or  later. 

But  we  have  already  seen  (p.  41  f.)  that  in  the  eighth  century 
at  least  the  recitation  of  heroic  poetry  was  by  no  means  un- 
known. Indeed  we  may  infer  from  the  language  used  by  Alcuin 
{ridentium  turuam  m  plateis)  that  it  enjoyed  a  good  deal  of 
favour  with  the  general  public.     Another  of  his  letters^  speaks 

1  nil  carminum  aliquando  didicerat.  unde  nonnunquam  in  conuiuio  cum  esset 
laetitiae  causa  decretutn  ut  omnes  per  ordinem  cantare  deberent,  ilk  ubi  adpropinquare 
sibi  citharam  cernebat  surgebat  a  media  caena  et  egressus  ad  suam  domum  repedebat. 

2  Mon.  Germ.,  Epist.  Carol.  Aeui,  li  21  (ad  Hygbaldum  episc.  Lindisfarnensem) : 
lectionis  studium  exercete.  audiantur  in  domibus  uestris  legentes,  non  ludenUs  in 
platea. 


8o  EARLY    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

to  much  the  same  effect.  We  may  gather  from  the  use  of  the 
word  citharista  that  these  recitations  also  were  accompanied 
by  the  harp.  But  the  language  of  the  letters  seems  rather  to 
suggest  that  the  performers  in  such  cases  were  persons  who 
made  minstrelsy  more  or  less  of  a  profession.  A  century  earlier 
the  existence  of  professional  minstrels  may  be  inferred  from  the 
well-known  story  of  Aldhelm' — that  he  used  to  take  up  his 
position  on  a  bridge,  like  a  professional  minstrel  {quasi  artem 
cantitandi  professum),  and  sing  to  the  people  in  order  to  call 
them  back  to  church.  We  are  not  informed  as  to  the  character 
of  the  poems  he  recited,  but  clearly  they  were  of  a  type 
calculated  to  attract  the  country  people. 

On  the  Continent  we  find  very  similar  evidence.  A  passage 
in  the  Annals  of  Quedlinburg,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded 
and  which  dates  perhaps  ultimately  from  the  tenth  century, 
states  that  the  country  people  used  to  sing  of  Dietrich  von 
Bern  I  From  a  much  earlier  period  we  have  an  interesting 
reference  to  a  Frisian  minstrel  named  Bernlef,  who  became  a 
disciple  of  St  Liudger.  He  had  been  blind  for  three  years, 
when  he  was  brought  to  the  missionary,  but  "  he  was  greatly 
loved  by  his  neighbours  because  of  his  geniality  and  his  skill 
in  reciting  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  harp  stories  of  the 
deeds  of  the  ancients  and  the  wars  of  kings^"  This  incident 
appears  to  have  taken  place  before  785.  That  minstrelsy  was 
definitely  recognised  as  a  profession  among  the  Frisians  is 
shown  by  the  last  clause  in  the  Lex  Frisonum,  which  fixes  a 
special  compensation  for  injury  to  the  hand  of  a  harpists 

From  all  this  we  gather  that  in  the  eighth  century  there 
existed  both  in  England  and  Germany  a  class  of  minstrels 
whose  practice  it  was  to  play  the  harp  and  recite  heroic  poetry 

^  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Pond/.,  v  §  190  (from  King  Alfred's  Handboc). 

*  Aviulung  Theoderic  dtcitur...et  iste  fuit  Thideric  de  Berne  de  quo  cantabant 
rustici  olim  (Mon.  Germ.,  Scr.  Ill  p.  31). 

^  Et  ecce  illo  disciimbente  cum  discipulis  suis  oblatus  est  cecus  uocabulo  Bernlef  qui 
a  uicinis  suis  ualde  diligebatur  eo  quod  esset  affabilis  et  antiquorum  actus  regumque 
certamina  bene  nouerat  psallendo  promere,  etc.  Vita  S.  Liudgeri,  II  (  (Mon.  Germ., 
Scr.  II  p.  412). 

■*  Qui  harpatorem  qui  cum  circulo  harpare  potest  in  manum  percusserit  componat 
illud  quarta  parte  maiore  compositione  quam  alteri  eiusdem  conditionis  komini,  etc. 
(Mon.  Germ.,  Leg.   in  699  f.). 


V]  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY  8 1 

in  the  village-streets  or  on  bridges  or  wherever  they  could 
gather  an  audience.  Now  if  we  turn  to  the  poems  themselves 
we  find  that  they  also  contain  references  to  professional  minstrels ; 
but  these  appear  to  have  been  quite  a  different  class  of  persons 
from  those  with  whom  we  have  been  dealing. 

At  the  close  of  his  elegy  (v.  35  ff.)  Deor  gives  the 
following  account  of  himself:  "With  regard  to  myself  I  will 
say  that  formerly  I  was  the  bard  (scop)  of  the  Heodeningas 
and  dear  to  my  lord.  My  name  is  Deor.  For  many  years 
I  have  had  a  good  office  and  a  gracious  master.  But  now 
Heorrenda,  a  skilful  poet,  has  received  the  domain  which  the 
king  had  before  given  to  me."  There  may  be  some  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  precise  meaning  of  the  word  londryht^,  but 
it  is  clear  enough  that  the  poet  had  been  a  court-minstrel  and 
that  he  had  been  supplanted  in  the  king's  favour  by  a  rival.  In 
Beowulf  also  we  find  mention  of  a  person  who  seems  to  hold 
a  similar  position.  The  word  scop  occurs  three  times  in  this 
poem  (vv.  90,  496,  1066) — always  perhaps  with  reference  to  the 
same  man.  In  each  case  he  is  represented  as  singing  or  reciting, 
and  twice  mention  is  made  of  the  harp.  On  the  last  occasion, 
when  he  recites  the  story  of  Finn  and  Hnaef  at  the  banquet 
(cf.  p.  2),  he  is  called  Hrd^gares  scop,  which  seems  to  imply  a 
sort  of  official  position. 

The  case  of  Widsith  is  somewhat  different.  The  poet  is  a 
traveller  who  prides  himself  on  the  large  number  of  nations 
he  has  visited.  He  states  also  that  he  served  under  various 
princes  by  whom  he  had  been  handsomely  rewarded.  The 
poem  ends  with  some  reflections  on  the  life  of  wandering 
minstrels ;  but  these  verses  may  be  a  later  addition,  like  the 
introduction.  At  all  events  in  v.  94  the  poet  speaks  of  his 
return  home,  when  he  presented  to  his  lord,  Eadgils  prince 
of  the  Myrgingas,  a  valuable  '  ring '  which  had  been  given  him 
by  Eormenric.  This  present  was  a  reward  to  Eadgils  for  his 
kindness  in  granting  the  poet  the  land  formerly  held  by  his 
father.  It  would  seem  then  that  the  poet  is  represented  as  a 
man  of  good  position.    Whether  we  describe  him  as  a  wandering 

^  Cf.  my  Studies  on  Anglo-Saxon  Institutions,  p.  369. 


82  EARLY   POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

minstrel  or  not,  his  occupation  is  clearly  to  be  regarded  as 
court-minstrelsy  and  different  therefore  from  that  of  Bernlef  and 
the  harpists  mentioned  by  Alcuin. 

Apart  from  these  personal  notices  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  heroic  poems  which  have  come  down  to  us  were  of 
courtly  and  not  of  popular  origin.  In  the  first  place  we  may 
note  their  strongly  aristocratic  tone.  This  may  be  appreciated 
from  the  fact  that  all  the  women  mentioned  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
poems  are  of  royal  birth,  while  the  men  are  either  princes  or 
persons,  apparently  of  noble  or  knightly  rank,  attached  to  the 
retinues  of  princes.  On  the  rare  occasions  when  persons  of 
humbler  rank  are  referred  to,  their  names  are  not  mentioned. 
In  Beowulf  no  name  is  given  even  to  the  court-minstrel.  Again 
the  poems  frequently  refer  to  details  of  court  etiquette,  with 
which  they  seem  to  be  well  acquainted.  In  the  later  German 
poems  this  feature  must  of  course  be  attributed  to  the  conditions 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  when  the  poems  were 
composed.  But  it  is  quite  as  marked  even  in  Beowulf  We 
may  note  especially  the  long  and  detailed  account  of  Beowulfs 
arrival  at  the  Danish  king's  hall  and  the  conversation  which 
the  chamberlain  holds  with  the  king  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
visitor  on  the  other,  before  the  latter  is  invited  to  enter.  The 
chamberlain's  exact  position  is  remarked,  when  he  approaches 
the  king  and  it  is  added  that  "  he  knew  the  custom  of  knight- 
hood ^"  Other  members  of  the  court  also  have  their  position 
or  duties  described  (vv.  500  f.,  ii6if.,  ii65f.,  1794  ff.) ;  but 
most  of  all  the  poet  loves  to  picture  the  movements  of  the  king 
and  queen  (vv.  612  ff.,  920  ff.,  1 162  f.). 

Then  again  it  should  be  observed  that  persons  of  royal  rank 
are  very  seldom  spoken  of  with  disrespect.  The  rare  exceptions 
to  this  rule  probably  all  refer  to  persons  of  a  remote  past, 
Eormenric,  Thrytho  and  Heremod,  and  in  the  last  two  cases 
the  reprobation  is  qualified  in  a  very  marked  way.  Moreover 
the  ground  of  censure  is  invariably  violence,  cruelty  or  treachery. 
Of  immoral  or  unseemly  conduct  we  have  no  mention.  Indeed, 
except  in  the  story  of  Weland — which  stands  by  itself  in  many 

1  Cu^  he  dugU^  \>eaw  (v.  359). 


V]  EARLY   POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  83 

ways,  as  we  shall  see  later — such  subjectiv  "jeem  to  be  studiously- 
avoided.  More  than  this  the  Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poems  are 
entirely  free  from  coarseness  of  language,  such  as  we  frequently 
find  in  Saxo's  history,  and  indeed  from  references  of  any  kind 
which  could  offend  even  the  most  fastidious  taste.  In  general 
the  same  remarks  are  true  also  of  the  German  and  Scandinavian 
heroic  poems,  though  not  in  the  same  degree.  But  the  gnomic 
and  theological  poems  of  the  Edda  show  a  wholly  different  tone, 
which  at  its  worst  (e.g.  in  Lokasenna)  verges  on  bestiality. 

Lastly,  we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  in  dignity  and 
polish  of  style  the  heroic  poems  far  surpass  any  narrative  works 
which  the  English  language  has  to  offer  for  many  centuries 
later.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  composition  of  epic  poetry 
requires  a  more  or  less  professional  training,  and  in  the  case 
of  such  poems  as  Beowulf  this  is  doubtless  true,  not  only  on 
account  of  its  length  but  also  because  a  very  large  vocabulary 
is  needed  for  the  constant  interchange  of  epithets  which  is  one 
of  its  chief  characteristics,  while  the  allusions  with  which  it 
abounds  point  to  the  possession  of  much  historical  or  traditional 
lore^  At  the  time  when  it  was  produced  the  knowledge  and 
leisure  necessary  for  such  composition  is  scarcely  likely  to  have 
been  found  outside  the  entourages  of  kings. 

On  the  other  hand  we  have  seen  that  minstrelsy  of  some 
kind  was  cultivated  even  by  peasants  in  Caedmon's  time.  We 
can  hardly  doubt  that  such  was  the  case  to  a  higher  degree  in 
court  circles.  In  Beow.  867  ff  we  find  a  '  king's  thegn '  com- 
posing an  account  of  the  hero's  adventure  immediately  after 
its  occurrence,  and  utilising  apparently  by  way  of  illustration 
the  story  of  Sigemund.  This  person  may  be  the  court  minstrel; 
but  the  identity  of  the  two  is  scarcely  certain.  In  a  later 
passage  (v.  2105  ff.),  referring  to  the  banquet  after  the  fight  with 
Grendel,  we  hear  of  the  king  himself  taking  his  turn  with  the 
harp :  "  There  we  had  poetry  and  music.  The  old  Scylding 
(Hrothgar)  related  stories  of  old  time  out  of  his  great  store 
of  information.  Now  the  martial^  hero  would  lay  his  hands 
on   the  joyous  harp,  the    instrument  that  makes  good   cheer ; 

1  Cf.  Brandl,  op.  cit.,  p.  981  f. 

*  It  is  generally  thought  that  all  these  sentences  refer  to  the  king. 


84  EARLY    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

now  he  would  recite  a  poem,  true  but  sad  ;  now  a  story  of 
marvel  would  be  related  in  due  course  by  the  magnanimous 
king.  Now  again,  bowed  with  age  as  he  was,  the  old  warrior 
would  begin  to  lament  that  he  had  lost  the  martial  vigour  of 
youth.  His  heart  surged  within  him  as  he  called  to  mind  the 
manifold  experiences  of  a  long  life."  It  is  held  that  the 
reference  here  is  to  lyrical  effusions  rather  than  to  anything 
in  the  nature  of  epic  narrative^;  but  I  am  inclined  to  doubt 
if  we  are  justified  in  totally  excluding  the  latter.  I  would  rather 
favour  the  view  that  the  cultivation  of  minstrelsy,  including 
narrative  as  well  as  lyric  poetry,  was  a  general  accomplishment 
in  royal  households,  and  that  the  office  of  court-minstrel  was 
an  honour  given  to  that  member  of  the  court  who  had  attained 
the  greatest  proficiency  in  his  art. 

The  statements  of  the  poems  as  to  the  prevalence  of  court- 
minstrelsy  during  the  Heroic  Age  are  fully  confirmed  by  the 
testimony  of  contemporary  Roman  writers.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  reference  is  a  passage  in  Priscus'  account  of  his  visit 
to  Attila  in  the  year  448.  After  describing  the  banquet  given 
by  the  king  to  his  guests  he  proceeds  as  follows^ :  "  When 
evening  came  on  torches  were  lighted  and  two  barbarians  stepped 
forth  in  front  of  Attila  and  recited  poems  which  they  had 
composed,  recounting  his  victories  and  his  valiant  deeds  in 
war.  The  banqueters  fixed  their  eyes  upon  them,  some 
being  charmed  with  the  poems,  while  others  were  roused  in 
spirit,  as  the  recollection  of  their  wars  came  back  to  them. 
Others  again  burst  into  tears,  because  their  bodies  were  en- 
feebled by  age  and  their  martial  ardour  had  perforce  to  remain 
unsatisfied." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  account  bears  a  curious  resem- 
blance to  the  passage  from  Beowulf  which  we  have  just  quoted. 
Nothing  is  said  as  to  the   language   in   which  the  poems  were 

1  Cf.  Brandl,  loc.  cit. 

-  K.  Miiller,  Fragmenta  Historicorum  Graecorum,  IV  p.  92.  ew ly evoixivri^  Si 
eatripai  5^5es  a.vf)<f>dr)<Tav,  Svo  5k  avriKpi)  rod  ^ ATTyfKa  napeXdovres  ^dp^apoi  q-afxara 
ir€Troi-r)ixiva  fKeyov,  vIkus  avrov  kuI  ras  Kara  TrdXefiov  ^Sotres  dperds"  ^s  oOs  oi  ttjs 
ei^wX'is  dW/SXeTToi',  Kai  oi  /j-ev  rfSovro  rots  Troir]/j.a<nv,  oi  5k  tCiv  iroXkinov  dva/xi/ivriffKdfjLevoi, 
5njyelpovTo  rots  (ppovqiiaatv,  &W01.  5e  ix^^povv  ej  5d.Kpva,  div  viro  rov  xp6vov  ijadivei  rb 
ffQfia  Kal  rjffvxd^m'  6  dv/xbs  r]vayKd^eTO. 


V]  EARLY    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  85 

composed S  but  at  all  events  we  need  hardly  doubt  that  in  this 
as  in  other  respects  Attila  was  following  Gothic  custom.  For 
the  duet  we  find  an  interesting  parallel  in  a  passage  of  Widsith 
(v.  103  fif.)  :  "  Then  Scilling  and  I  began  to  sing  with  clear  voices 
before  our  victorious  lord  ;  loudly  rang  out  our  music  as  we  played 
the  harp.  Then  it  was  openly  confessed  by  many  brave-hearted 
and  experienced  men  that  they  had  never  heard  a  better  song." 

Evidence  for  the  cultivation  of  minstrelsy  at  Teutonic  courts 
in  Gaul  is  furnished  by  letters  of  Cassiodorus  (  Variarum  II,  40  f.) 
and  Sidonius  Apollinaris  {Ep.  I,  2).  The  former  document  is 
an  answer  from  the  Ostrogothic  king  Theodric  to  a  request 
from  Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks  (d.  511),  who  had  asked  him 
to  send  him  a  skilled  minstrel.  Sidonius'  letter  is  a  very  full 
account  of  Theodric  II,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  who  reigned 
from  453  to  466.  He  states  that  the  king  seldom  admitted 
jesters  when  he  was  dining,  and  that  he  took  no  pleasure  in 
music  except  when  it  encouraged  manliness  of  spirit  as  well  as 
pleased  the  ear.  In  neither  of  these  cases  however  is  it  certain 
that  the  performers  were  Goths. 

A  clearer  case  of  Teutonic  minstrelsy,  dating  from  the  same 
period,  occurs  in  one  of  Sidonius'  poems  {Carm.  12^),  in  which 
the  author  complains  that  he  has  to  live  among  troops  of  long- 
haired and  greedy  Burgundians,  listening  with  polite  attention, 
in  spite  of  his  disgust,  to  their  songs.  More  than  a  century  later 
we  hear  of  Frankish  court-minstrelsy  in  a  neighbouring  district. 
In  a  poem  addressed  to  Lupus,  duke  of  Aquitaine,  about  the 
year  580,  Venantius  Fortunatus  {Carm.  VII  8.  61)  says:  "Let 
the  Roman  sound  your  praise  with  his  lyre  and  the  barbarian 
with  his  harp^";  and  again  :  "  Let  us  frame  verses  for  you,  while 
barbarian  poets  compose  their  lays;  thus  the  hero  will  be  greeted 
with  like  honour,  though  in  diverse  strains^"   In  the  introduction 

1  The  performers  who  followed  are  said  to  have  used  Gothic,  Hunnish  and  Latin. 

^  Freely  translated  by  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  her  Invaders^,  Vol.  11,  p.  363.  That 
the  songs  were  in  the  national  language  appears  from  the  phrases  Germanica  uerba 
(v.  4),  barbaricis  abacta  plectris...  Thalia  (v.  9  f. ). 

*  Roinatiusque  lyra  plaudat  tibi  barharus  harpa. 

■*  V.  67  f.  nos  tibi  uersiculos,  dent  barbara  carmina  leudos  : 

sic  uariante  tropo  lans  sonet  una  uiro. 

The  word  leudos  is  generally  interpreted  as  in  the  next  passage  (Ang.-Sax.  led^)  ; 
but  is  it  not  possible  that  here  it  is  an  error  for  leudes  (N.  pi.)  ? 


86  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY       [CHAP. 

to  his  poems  the  same  author  complains  of  the  constant  buzzing 
of  the  harp,  as  it  resounds  to  the  barbarian  lays^ 

A  curious  case  of  royal  minstrelsy  is  recorded  by  Procopius 
( Vand.  II  6)  in  his  account  of  the  siege  of  Mount  Pappua 
(a.d.  534).  Gelimer,  king  of  the  Vandals,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Faras,  the  Herulian  chief  who  commanded  the  besieging  army, 
begging  him  to  send  him  a  harp,  a  loaf  and  a  sponge.  The 
explanation  given  by  the  messenger  was  that  the  king  had 
composed  a  song  upon  his  misfortunes  and  as  he  was  a  good 
minstrel  he  was  anxious  to  accompany  it  with  a  mournful  tune 
on  the  harp  as  he  bewailed  his  fate'-.  We  are  again  reminded 
of  Hrothgar,  but  perhaps  still  more  of  Hrethel's  dirge  over 
his  son  (Beow.  2460  f.). 

These  examples  are  sufficient  to  show  that  minstrelsy  was 
widely  cultivated  in  the  courts  of  the  Teutonic  princes  who  had 
established  themselves  in  Roman  territory.  Taken  together  with 
the  references  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  which  deals  of  course 
with  the  more  northern  peoples,  they  leave  no  doubt  that  the 
prevalence  of  court-minstrelsy  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  Heroic  Age.  For  the  existence  of  professional  minstrels 
the  Roman  evidence  is  not  so  clear,  though  we  may  regard  in 
this  light  the  two  '  barbarians '  mentioned  by  Priscus  (p.  84). 
On  the  whole  the  impression  which  we  gain  from  our  authorities 
is  that  the  cultivation  of  the  art  was  more  or  less  general  as  in 
the  north. 

But  it  must  certainly  not  be  assumed  that  the  poems  of  the 
period  were  always  of  an  ephemeral  character.  Jordanes  (cap.  5), 
in  a  passage  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  says  that  the 
Goths  "used  to  sing  to  the  strains  of  the  harp  ancient  poetry 
dealing  with  the  deeds  of  their  ancestors,  Eterparmara,  Hanala, 
Fridigernus,  Vidigoia  and  others  who  are  very  famous  in  this 
nation ^"     Again,  when  he  mentions  the  migration  of  the  Goths 

*  sola  saepe  bombicans  barharos  kudos  arpa  relidens  (Mon.  Germ.,  Auct.  Antiquiss. 
Tom.  IV  i  p.  2). 

^  KidapiffTrj  5e  dyad<^  ovri  (^5ri  tu  aury  ej  ^vix<popa.v  Trjv  Trapovcav  iretroLrjTai,  rjv  Si) 
Trpos  Kiddpav  dprjvrjcraL  re  xal  dwoKXaOaai  eTreiyeTai. 

^  antiquo  etiarn  cantii  maiorum  facta  niodulationibus  citharisque  canebanl,  Respa- 
marae,  Hanalae,  Fridigerni,  Vidigoiae  et  aliorum  quorum  in  hac  gente  magna  opinio 
est,  quales  uix  heroas  fuisse  miranda  iactai  antiquitas. 


V]  EARLY   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  87 

to  the  Black  Sea  (cap.  4),  he  refers  to  "  their  ancient  poems," 
where  this  event  is  commonly  related  in  almost  historical  styled 
From  such  expressions  we  must  conclude  that  Jordanes  knew, 
directly  or  indirectly,  of  Gothic  poems  which  he  believed  to 
have  been  in  existence  for  a  considerable  time. 

Jordanes'  language  may  be  compared  with  Einhard's  refer- 
ence to  the  '  barbarous  and  very  ancient  poems '  collected  by 
Charlemagne  (cf  p.  62).  But  in  reality  there  appears  to  be 
an  essential  difference  between  the  minstrelsy  of  the  Heroic 
Age  and  that  of  Charlemagne's  time.  In  the  latter  period  we 
hear  only  of  '  very  ancient  poems '  or  of  poems  dealing  with 
'  the  deeds  of  the  ancients,'  as  in  the  story  of  Bernlef  The 
two  expressions  may  really  be  more  or  less  equivalent,  for  there 
is  nothing  to  show  that  Bernlef  was  an  original  composer.  For 
the  existence  in  his  time  of  court-minstrelsy,  or  indeed  of  any 
poetry  dealing  with  contemporary  persons  and  events,  we  have 
no  evidence  which  can  be  called  satisfactory^ 

In  the  Heroic  Age  on  the  other  hand  we  have  references 
not  only  to  '  ancient  poems '  but  also  to  original  compositions, 
dealing  with  the  praise  or  fortunes  of  living  men.  The  exploits 
of  Attila,  one  of  the  leading  figures  of  that  age,  were  sung  in 
his  own  presence,  as  we  know  from  an  eye-witness.  We  need 
scarcely  doubt  therefore  that  Beowulf  truly  reflects  the  spirit  of 
the  times  when  it  makes  one  of  the  Danish  king's  thegns 
compose  a  poem  on  the  hero's  exploit  immediately  after  the 
event.  It  is  to  such  compositions  that  heroic  poetry — indeed 
in  a  sense  we  may  say  the  Heroic  Age  itself — owes  its  origin. 

The  beginning  of  the  process  may  be  seen  from  a  few 
passages  in  Widsith.  At  the  end  of  the  poem  we  are  told  that 
"  he  who  wins  praise  {lof)  shall  have  his  glory  {dotn)  established 
on  high  beneath  the  sky,"  The  meaning  of  the  first  expression 
is  explained  by  another  passage  (v.  70  ff.) :  "  I  have  been  in 
Italy  with  Alboin.  No  human  being,  as  far  as  my  knowledge 
goes,  had  a  readier  hand  than  had  Audoin's  son  for  the  winning 

'  quemadmodum  et  in  priscis  eorum  carminibus  pent  historko  ritu  in  commune 
recolitttr. 

*  For  a  passage  in  Saxo  Poeta  which  seems  to  indicate  the  existence  of  such  poems 
cf.  p.  6,  note. 


88  EARLY   POETRY    AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

of  praise,  nor  a  heart  more  ungrudging  in  the  distribution  of 
rings  and  shining  bracelets."  We  may  compare  also  what  the 
poet  says  of  his  patroness,  the  princess  Ealhhild  (v.  99  fT.):  "Her 
praise  spread  through  many  lands,  when  I  set  myself  to  declare 
in  song  where  under  heaven  it  was  that  I  knew  of  a  gold-adorned 
queen  who  lavished  presents  in  the  noblest  fashion."  The  chief 
object  which  the  characters  of  the  Heroic  Age  set  before  them- 
selves is  to  '  win  glory ' — to  have  their  fame  celebrated  for  all 
time.  Thus  in  Beow.  1387  ff.  the  hero  says:  "Let  him,  who 
can,  win  for  himself  glory  before  he  dies  ;  that  is  the  best  thing 
which  can  come  to  a  knight  in  after  times,  when  he  is  no  more." 
Such  glory  may  be  won  by  brave  deeds,  as  when  Beowulf  says 
to  Hrothgar  before  his  second  adventure  {ib.  1490  f.):  "I  will 
win  for  myself  glory  with  Hrunting  (a  sword),  or  death  shall 
take  me,"  or  again  when  the  queen  says  to  Beowulf  (z*^.  1221  ff.): 
"  Thou  hast  brought  it  about  that  men  shall  esteem  thee  far 
and  near  and  for  all  eternity,  wheresoever  the  sea  encircleth  its 
wind-swept  barriers."  But  the  same  object  can  be  attained  by 
generosity,  which  will  ensure  one's  praise  being  sounded  from 
court  to  court. 

Now  perhaps  we  are  in  a  better  position  to  understand  why 
the  Heroic  Age  ends  when  it  does.  The  latest  person  mentioned 
in  the  heroic  poems  is  Alboin  who  died  about  572.  The  last 
Roman  author  who  mentions  Teutonic  court-minstrelsy  is 
Venantius  Fortunatus,  who  wrote  apparently  about  ten  years 
later.  Is  there  a  connection  between  these  two  facts }  It  should 
be  remembered  that  we  have  felt  some  hesitation  in  including 
Alboin  among  the  characters  of  the  Heroic  Age,  for  though 
his  praises  were  sung  among  the  Saxons  and  Bavarians,  as  well 
as  in  England,  he  does  not  figure  in  any  widely  known  story. 
We  may  reasonably  expect  that  such  stories  would  as  a  rule — 
not  necessarily — require  a  certain  time  in  which  to  be  elaborated. 
Is  it  possible  that  in  Alboin's  time  the  conditions  favourable 
to  such  elaboration  were  no  longer  in  existence — that  court- 
minstrelsy  was  dying  out  or  had  lost  its  creative  power? 

It  will  perhaps  be  urged  that  the  absence  of  reference  to 
court-minstrelsy  after  Venantius'  time  may  be  due  to  mere 
accident.      But  a  short  consideration   of  the    political  position 


V]  EARLY   POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  89 

will  show  that  there  is  good  reason  for  thinking  otherwise. 
During  the  period  which  had  elapsed  since  the  time  of  Priscus 
and  Sidonius — we  may  say  roughly  about  a  century  and  a 
quarter — the  Teutonic  world  had  undergone  great  changes. 
Many  kingdoms  had  disappeared,  among  them  those  of  the 
Huns,  Rugii,  Heruli,  Alamanni,  Thuringians,  Burgundians, 
Vandals  and  Ostrogoths,  and  probably  also  the  Warni  and 
Gepidae.  Of  the  nations  which  survived  the  Visigoths  and 
Langobardi,  and  to  a  large  extent  the  Franks  also,  were  settled 
among  alien  peoples  and  thus  exposed  to  denationalising  in- 
fluences. This  is  partly  true  also  of  the  Bavarians,  and  they 
moreover  had  become  subject  to  the  Franks  before  the  middle 
of  the  sixth  century.  Probably  the  only  other  Teutonic 
kingdoms  which  remained  on  the  Continent  were  those  of  the 
Frisians  and  the  Danes,  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Old 
Saxons  were  under  kingly  government  at  this  time'.  More- 
over the  Danes  were  almost  cut  off  from  the  western  peoples 
by  the  irruption  of  the  Slavs  who  now  occupied  the  greater 
part  of  ancient  Germany.  Hence  we  may  conclude  that  even 
if  court-minstrelsy  survived  in  a  few  places  the  poems  had 
now  no  longer  any  chance  of  obtaining  a  wide  international 
circulation. 

The  change  of  faith  is  of  course  another  consideration  which 
must  be  taken  into  account.  One  of  its  effects  was  to  cut  off 
the  Christian  kingdoms  from  those  of  the  Frisians  and  Danes. 
Probably  also  it  had  an  adverse  influence  on  the  cultivation 
of  court-minstrelsy,  for  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  was 
originally  permeated  by  heathen  ideas.  At  all  events  we  find 
in  later  times  surprisingly  few  traces  of  heroic  poetry  in  the 
territories  of  the  Franks,  Visigoths  and  Langobardi. 

Of  the  purely  Teutonic  kingdoms,  excluding  Denmark,  that 
of  the  Frisians  was  the  last  to  retain  both  its  independence  and 
its  religion.  It  can  hardly  be  due  to  accident  therefore  that 
some  of  the  most  important  of  the  heroic  poems,  such  as 
Kudrun  (cf.  p.  34)  and  probably  also  the  Norse  version  of 
the  story  of  SigurtSr   (cf.    p.   59),  appear  to   be   derived   from 

'  At  all  events  they  had  no  kings  when  we  first  obtain  definite  information  about 
them,  towards  the  close  of  the  following  century. 


go  EARLY    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

Frisian  sources,  though  this  region  was  not  their  original  home. 
Further,  we  have  noticed  that  in  Frisian  law  a  special  compen- 
sation was  fixed  for  injury  done  to  the  hand  of  a  harpist.  Still 
more  significant  is  the  fact  that  in  the  passage  quoted  above 
(p.  80)  from  the  Vita  Liudgeri,  describing  Bernlef's  skill  in 
reciting  heroic  poetry,  one  text  adds  the  words  more  gentis  suae. 
It  would  seem  then  that  minstrelsy  of  this  type  was  regarded 
as  a  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  Frisians  and  that  heroic 
poetry  retained  its  hold  upon  them  at  a  time  when  it  was  little 
known  elsewhere. 

In  England  the  conditions  appear  to  have  been  quite  different 
from  those  with  which  we  have  been  dealing,  for  at  the  end  of 
the  sixth  century  this  country  probably  contained  more  Teutonic 
kingdoms  than  did  the  whole  of  western  and  central  Europe. 
We  have  seen  reason  for  believing  that  Beowulf  was  composed 
within  about  half  a  century  of  Venantius'  time  and  that  the 
other  heroic  poems  may  date  from  the  same  period.  From  the 
evidence  which  we  have  discussed  above  we  should  naturally 
conclude  that  court-minstrelsy  lasted  somewhat  longer  in  England 
than  elsewhere,  although  it  dealt  entirely  with  stories  derived 
from  abroad.  It  is  true  that  there  is  no  external  evidence  for 
such  minstrelsy  ;  but  that  is  fully  explained  by  the  fact  that 
we  have  practically  no  literature  of  any  kind  before  the  last 
decades  of  the  seventh  century.  Most  probably  its  extinction 
was  due  to  that  wave  of  religious  fervour  which  was  started  by 
the  Kentish  king  Erconberht  and  which  in  the  course  of  the 
following  half  century  seems  to  have  succeeded  in  enforcing 
conformity  to  the  new  faith  throughout  the  whole  country. 

It  will  be  convenient  now  to  consider  briefly  the  court- 
poetry  of  the  Viking  Age.  The  history  of  heroic  poetry  in 
the  North  unfortunately  cannot  be  traced  in  its  entire  course. 
We  have  seen  that  there  is  a  long  gap,  extending  over  some 
two  centuries  and  a  half,  in  Danish  tradition,  and  also  that 
the  poems  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  probably 
all  of  Norse  (Norwegian-Icelandic)  origin.  Yet  the  social 
conditions  of  the  Viking  Age  were  very  different  from  those 
which  prevailed  on  the  Continent  during  the  same  period  and 


V]  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY  91 

unquestionably  nearer  than  the  latter  to  those  of  the  Heroic 
Age.  It  is  not  unreasonable  therefore  to  expect  that  the 
court-poetry  of  the  Viking  Age  may  throw  light  on  the  earlier 
period. 

We  saw  in  an  earlier  chapter  (p.  1 5  f )  that,  apart  from  the 
Edda,  Old  Norse  literature  is  rich  in  narrative  poems  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  These  are  usually  the  work  of  known 
authors  and  deal  for  the  most  part  with  contemporary  persons 
and  events,  though  they  contain  frequent  references  to  characters 
of  the  Heroic  Age,  as  well  as  to  the  ancestors  of  reigning 
princes.  Many  of  the  authors,  such  as  Thi6(5olfr  of  Hvi'n, 
Thorbiorn  Hornklofi  and  GoSSormr  Sindri,  were  what  we  may 
call  court-minstrels — or  rather  court-poets,  for  the  harp  seems 
not  to  have  been  used  by  such  persons,  at  least  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  Viking  Age.  But  they  can  scarcely  be  regarded 
as  professionals  in  any  strict  sense  of  the  term.  As  a  rule 
they  appear  to  have  been  men  of  good  family.  ThioSolfr  was 
a  familiar  friend  of  Harold  the  Fair-haired,  who  entrusted  him 
with  the  education  of  one  of  his  sons.  GoSSormr  Sindri,  who 
composed  poems  for  the  same  king,  refused  to  receive  any 
reward  and  had  sufficient  influence  with  Harold  to  insist  on 
his  being  reconciled  with  his  son  Halfdan  Svarti.  Another 
poet  of  the  same  period,  Einarr\  commonly  called  Torf-Einarr, 
was  earl  of  Orkney  and  practically  an  independent  prince. 
Eyvindr  Skaldaspillir,  who  was  attached  to  the  service  of 
Haakon  I  and  Haakon,  earl  of  Lade,  was  himself  a  descendant 
of  Harold  the  Fair-haired. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  from  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century  onwards  most  of  the  poems  quoted  in  the  sagas  are 
of  Icelandic  authorship.  A  considerable  number  of  them  may 
be  regarded  as  court-poems,  since  they  were  composed  in  honour 
of  princes  whom  the  authors  were  visiting  at  the  time.  As 
an  example  we  may  take  a  verse  quoted  by  Gunnlaugs  Saga 
Ormstungu  (cap.  7)  from  the  poem  composed  by  the  hero, 
when  he  visited  London  in  looi  :  "The  whole  nation  reveres 
England's   generous   ruler  as   a   god  ;  all   ranks,  warrior   prince 

*  Son  of  Rognvaldr,  earl  of  More,  and  half-brother  of  Gonguhrolfr  (Rollo),  first 
earl  of  Normandy. 


92  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY       [CHAP. 

and  people  alike,  bow  down  to  Aethelred."  Such  poems  were 
often  handsomely  rewarded.  Aethelred  presented  Gunnlaugr 
with  a  scarlet  cloak,  lined  with  fur  and  embroidered  with  lace, 
while  Sigtryggr,  king  of  Dublin,  gave  him  a  fur-lined  cloak, 
a  lace-embroidered  tunic  and  a  gold  ring  which  weighed  a  mark. 
It  happened  very  frequently  that  men  like  Gunnlaugr  would 
enter  a  king's  retinue  and  remain  with  him  for  months  and  even 
years.  But  they  would  seldom  consent  to  recognise  any  lordship 
permanently,  since  as  a  rule  they  had  lands  of  their  own  in 
Iceland,  to  which  they  eventually  returned. 

It  is  hardly  probable  that  any  class  of  persons  exactly 
corresponding  to  this  existed  in  the  Heroic  Age  itself,  for  with 
the  somewhat  doubtful  exception  of  the  Old  Saxons  we  have 
no  evidence  for  independent  commonwealths  during  that  period. 
In  Widsith,  it  is  true,  we  have  the  case  of  a  minstrel  who  claims 
to  have  wandered  far  and  wide  and  to  have  visited  many  princes 
by  whom,  like  Gunnlaugr,  he  was  handsomely  rewarded.  But 
Widsith  had  a  lord  at  home  to  whom  he  subsequently  returned. 
Indeed  the  introduction,  if  we  may  use  it  as  an  authority,  seems 
to  make  him  set  out  at  first  on  a  definite  commission  from  that 
prince.  The  permanent  lordless  state  was  probably  altogether 
foreign  to  the  conditions  of  the  Heroic  Age.  The  lordless  man 
in  the  poems  is  either  one  who  has  lost  his  lord,  as  in  the 
Wanderer,  or  one  who  has  been  dismissed  from  his  lord's  service, 
like  Deor.  Until  he  finds  another  lord  he  has  neither  home  nor 
security,  and  his  condition  is  pitiable  in  the  extreme. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  so  clear  how  the  court-minstrels  of 
the  Heroic  Age  differed  from  the  Norwegian  poets  of  the  Viking 
Age.  In  Kudrun  the  minstrel  Horant  (Heorrenda)  seems  to 
hold  a  position  quite  comparable  with  that  of  ThioSolfr  or 
GoScSormr  Sindri ;  indeed  he  is  even  described  as  a  relative 
{mac)  of  the  king'.  Again,  we  may  take  the  case  of  StarkaSr. 
He  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  type  of  a  roving  poet-warrior 
of  the  Viking  Age.  But  in  reality  he  seems  to  belong  to  the 
Heroic  Age  ;  for  however  late  the  poems  attributed  to  him  may 
be  in  their  final  form,  they  had  their  counterparts  in  England 
probably  as  early  as  the  sixth  century.     There  is  no  conclusive 

'  In  the  Norse  form  of  the  story  Hiarrandi  is  the  name  of  HetJinn's  father. 


V]  EARLY    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  93 

evidence  for  denying  either  that  he  was  the  foster-father  of 
Ingialdr  (Ingeld)  or  that  he  entered  the  service  of  a  number 
of  different  kings. 

The  story  of  StarkaSr  is  bound  up  with  tlie  history  of  heroic 
poetry  in  the  Viking  Age — a  difficult  problem,  to  which  we 
shall  have  to  refer  again  shortly.  We  may  note  here  however 
that  the  poems  of  ThioSolfr  and  Hornklofi  must  have  been 
preserved  for  some  three  centuries  by  oral  tradition  before  they 
were  committed  to  writing.  There  seems  to  be  no  reason 
therefore  for  denying  in  principle  the  possibility  that  poems 
may  have  survived  even  from  the  Heroic  Age.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  court-poets  were  expected  to  be  able  to  recite 
old  poems,  as  well  as  works  of  their  own  composition.  Thus 
on  the  morning  of  the  battle  of  Stiklestad  (a.d.  1030)  St  Olaf 
ordered  the  Icelander  ThormotJr  Kolbriinarskald  to  recite  the 
old  Biarkamal.  This  story  is  interesting  as  it  shows  that 
the  love  of  the  heroic  poems  was  strong  enough  to  assert 
itself  in  an  hour  of  supreme  danger  and  under  a  most  religious 
king. 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  seen  that  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  Heroic  Age  was  the  prevalence  of  court- 
minstrelsy  of  a  certain  type,  namely  the  recitation  of  metrical 
speeches  accompanied  by  the  harp.  The  cultivation  of  such 
minstrelsy  seems  to  have  been  more  or  less  general,  and  it  is 
certain  that  princes  had  their  praises  and  exploits  celebrated 
in  poems  of  this  kind  during  their  lifetime  and  even  in  their 
presence.  But  with  the  close  of  the  Heroic  Age  the  evidence 
for  minstrelsy  of  this  type  apparently  ceases  altogether.  In  the 
eighth  century  we  hear  only  of  wandering  minstrels  who  are 
invited  into  houses  or  perform  in  the  streets.  The  minstrelsy 
of  this  period  seems  not  to  have  been  creative.  At  all  events 
it  deals  only  with  characters  belonging  to  former  times,  Ingeld 
or  Alboin  or  ancient  kings  in  general.  Between  these  two 
periods  we  have  to  set  the  composition  of  the  English  heroic 
poems  and  probably  also  those  German  poems  which  were 
regarded  as  ancient  in  Charlemagne's  time.  Lastly,  we  find 
in   Germany  a  series  of  poems   dating   from  the  twelfth  and 


94  EARLY   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

thirteenth  centuries  in  which  the  old  stories  are  treated   again 
but  in  a  new  form. 

It  appears  then  that  the  history  of  heroic  poetry  falls 
naturally  into  four  stages.  To  Stage  I  belong  the  court-poems 
of  the  Heroic  Age  itself;  to  Stage  II  the  epic  and  narrative 
poems  based  on  these;  to  Stage  III  the  popular  poetry  of  the 
eighth  and  following  centuries  ;  to  Stage  iv  the  German  poems 
of  the  twelfth  and  following  centuries,  composed  at  a  time 
when  heroic  subjects  had  again  come  into  favour  with  the 
higher  classes. 

To  Stage  l  we  may  assign  not  only  laudatory  poems  dealing 
with  the  victories  and  valour  of  living  princes,  but  also  such 
compositions  as  Gelimer's  dirge  and  choric  songs  like  the 
funeral  chant  over  Attila^  From  this  stage  probably  nothing 
has  come  down  to  us — though  it  would  be  difficult  to  point 
out  any  essential  difference  between  Gelimer's  dirge  and  the 
Elegy  of  Deor.  We  can  form  an  idea  however  of  these  earliest 
poems  from  the  poetry  of  the  Viking  Age,  which  seems  to  have 
been  composed  under  very  similar  conditions.  As  instances  we 
may  cite  Gunnlaugr's  poem  on  Aethelred  II  (cf.  p.  91  f)  and 
Eyvindr's  poem  on  the  death  of  Haakon  I,  which  we  shall  have 
to  discuss  later. 

Stage  II  is  represented  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems,  which 
are  clearly  products  of  court-life,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  81  ff.). 
From  its  general  resemblance  to  these  it  seems  probable  that 
the  Hildebrandslied  belongs  to  the  same  class.  Some  writers 
draw  a  distinction  between  Beowulf  and  Waldhere  on  the  one 
hand  and  Finn  and  the  Hildebrandslied  on  the  other,  classifying 
the  former  as  epics  and  the  latter  as  lays  (Lieder).  It  may  be 
granted  that  the  style  of  the  two  latter  poems  appears  to  be 
more  rapid  and  less  diffuse  than  that  of  the  others.  Still  I 
should  prefer  to  speak  of  short  and  long  epics,  or  rather  perhaps 
of  short  and  long  narrative  poems.  Very  probably  the  earliest 
narrative  poems  were  comparatively  short.  It  may  be  that 
poems  on  the  scale  of  Beowulf  were  first  composed  in  England — 
though  this  can  hardly  be  proved.  But  the  difference  between 
the  two  classes  seems  to  me  to  be  one  of  degree  and  not  of 

^  Jordanes,  cap.  49;  cf.  Beow.  3i7off. 


V]  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY  95 

kind.  At  all  events  no  one  will  suggest  that  the  Hildebrandslied 
is  even  approximately  contemporaneous  with  the  events  which 
it  professes  to  describe.  One  would  expect  it  to  be  at  least  as 
remote  from  them  as  is  the  case  with  Beowulf 

Stage  III  is  directly  represented  only  by  certain  ballads  such 
as  the  Seyfridslied,  which  in  their  present  form  date  from  a  time 
considerably  later  than  the  poems  belonging  to  Stage  IV.  Much 
indirect  evidence  however  can  be  obtained  from  various  sources 
of  earlier  date,  e.g.  from  Thit5reks  Saga  af  Bern,  which  is  largely 
based  on  the  popular  heroic  poetry  of  northern  Germany,  and 
from  parts  of  Saxo's  History  which  seem  to  be  derived  from 
Danish  ballads.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  from  our  authorities 
the  popular  poems  seem  to  have  differed  in  many  ways  from 
those  which  we  have  been  discussing.  They  tended  to  simplify 
complex  stories  by  the  loss  of  minor  characters  and  to  amalga- 
mate stories  which  were  originally  quite  unconnected.  Again, 
they  appear  to  have  had  a  preference  for  biographical  sketches, 
whereas  the  court  poems  are  usually  occupied  with  accounts  of 
adventures  which  lasted  only  a  few  days.  We  may  add  also 
the  absence  of  any  detailed  acquaintance  with  court-life  and  a 
general  approximation  to  the  characteristics  of  folk-tales,  e.g.  in 
the  introduction  of  nameless  characters  and  persons  of  humble 
station. 

It  must  be  remembered  of  course  that  our  authorities  knew 
the  popular  poems  only  as  they  existed  in  the  twelfth  century'. 
We  cannot  say  with  any  confidence  that  Bernlef  s  poems  possessed 
the  same  characteristics.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  the 
Hildebrandslied  was  written  down  before  his  time,  and  it  may 
be  to  persons  of  his  type  that  we  owe  its  preservation.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  poems  may  not  have  been  committed  to  writing 
till  a  still  later  period.  All  that  we  can  say  is  that  they  show 
no  obvious  signs  of  popular  corruption  and  that  their  diction 
is  much  more  archaic  than  that  of  poems  which  were  composed 
in  the  eighth  century.  We  have  seen  that  in  Iceland  poems  of 
a  rather  elaborate  type  could  be  preserved  by  oral  tradition  for 
over  three  centuries.     This  however  was  in  a  community  which 

^  Ekkehard's  Waltharius  of  course  belongs  to  a  much  earlier  period,  but  it  is  not 
always  clear  what  has  been  added  by  Ekkehard  himself. 


96  EARLY   POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

was  largely  given  up  to  the  cultivation  of  poetry.  A  knowledge 
of  the  old  poems  would  be  a  necessary  part  of  the  training  of 
those  who  hoped  to  win  rewards  for  their  art  in  foreign  courts. 
Such  favourable  conditions  can  hardly  have  existed  either  in 
England  or  Germany.  The  process  of  disintegration  which 
the  poems  underwent  in  the  latter  country  points  to  their  being 
preserved  only  by  village  minstrels,  who  as  time  went  on  became 
less  and  less  expert  in  their  profession. 

Stage  IV  is  represented  by  the  Middle  High  German  epic 
poems,  which  both  in  form  and  spirit  show  all  the  characteristics 
of  the  age  in  which  they  were  composed.  In  England  this 
stage  was  never  reached.  There  may  have  been  a  revival  of 
interest  in  heroic  poetry  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries, 
but  we  have  no  evidence  for  the  composition  of  new  poems  on 
these  subjects. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  poems  of  Stage  IV  are 
derived  from  those  of  Stage  III.  But  the  question  may  be 
raised  whether  the  latter  were  necessarily  derived  from  poems 
of  Stages  I  and  II — whether  some  heroic  poems  may  not  have 
been  entirely  of  popular  origin.  It  may  be  freely  granted  that 
the  poetry  of  Stage  II  was  constantly  exposed  to  popular  in- 
fluence, especially  in  the  form  of  folk-tales.  Most  scholars 
indeed  hold  that  some  of  the  best  known  heroic  stories,  such  as 
those  of  SigurSr-Siegfried  and  Weland,  are  derived  from  popular 
mythology.  With  this  problem  we  shall  have  to  deal  later.  On 
the  whole  however  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  whether  we  possess 
a  single  heroic  story  which  has  not  been  treated  in  court-poetry 
at  an  earlier  stage  in  its  career. 

Again,  the  relationship  between  Stage  I  and  Stage  II  is  not 
so  simple  as  the  bare  statement  given  above  might  seem  to 
imply.  In  the  first  place  it  is  only  as  a  class  that  poems  of 
Stage  I  can  be  regarded  as  the  earlier.  Individual  poems  may 
very  well  be  later  than  others  which  belong  to  Stage  II.  Thus 
it  is  extremely  probable  that  Gothic  princes  were  listening  to 
laudatory  poems  about  themselves  at  a  time  when  other  Gothic 
poems,  of  a  definitely  narrative  type,  were  coming  to  be  regarded 
as  ancient.  Then  again,  poems  of  a  more  or  less  narrative  type 
may  have  been  composed  quite  soon  after  the  events  which  they 


V]  EARLY    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  97 

treat.  Hornklofi's  Hrafnsmdl  and  the  poem  on  the  battle  of 
Brunanburh  must  be  regarded  as  analogous  to  poems  of  Stage  I, 
but  it  is  only  a  short  step  from  such  works  to  purely  narrative 
pieces.  Indeed,  in  a  sense,  we  may  almost  class  among  narrative 
poems  Eyvindr's  Hdkonarmdl,  which  describes  the  fall  of 
Haakon  I  at  the  battle  of  Fitje.  Yet  the  author  was  himself 
present  at  the  battle.  It  is  by  no  means  clear  then  that  poems 
belonging  to  Stage  II  necessarily  presuppose  the  existence  of 
earlier  poems  or  indeed  of  materials  of  any  kind  beyond  the 
author's  personal  knowledge  and  imagination. 

But,  more  than  this,  we  are  scarcely  justified  in  denying  the 
possibility  that  even  epics  may  have  been  composed  upon  quite 
recent  events.  Few  will  deny  that  the  poem  on  the  battle  of 
Maldon  has  a  good  claim  to  that  title,  whatever  its  original 
length  may  have  been.  The  extant  portion  contains  nine 
speeches,  by  seven  different  persons.  Twenty-two  warriors  in 
the  English  army  are  mentioned  by  name,  and  in  about  a  dozen 
cases  the  names  of  their  fathers  or  other  relatives  are  also  given. 
The  poem  differs  from  the  heroic  type  in  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  record  the  name  of  a  single  person  among  the  enemy  ;  but 
that  need  not  prevent  us  from  regarding  it  as  an  epic.  Yet 
there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  it  was  composed  within  a 
few  years,  possibly  even  months,  of  the  battled 

It  is  likely  enough  that  the  author  of  this  poem  was  well 
acquainted  with  heroic  poetry  and  that  his  treatment  of  the 
subject  was  affected  thereby.  But  is  that  any  objection  to 
supposing  that  poems  of  this  type  may  have  been  composed 
within  the  Heroic  Age  itself .-"  We  have  no  reason  whatever  for 
denying  that  this  age  was  capable  of  such  compositions.  Indeed 
there  is  one  piece  of  evidence  which  points  very  much  to  the 
contrary. 

This  is  a  passage  which  occurs  in  Procopius'  History  of  the 
Gothic  War  (iv  20).  After  describing  the  embassy  sent  to 
Justinian  by  the  Utiguri  in  the  year  551,  the  author  goes  on 
to  state  that  '  about  this  time '  hostilities  broke  out  between  the 
nation  of  the  Warni  and  the  Angli  CAyyiXot)  who  inhabit  the 
island  of  Britain  (BpiTTia).      Not  long  before  the  Warni  had 

^  Cf.  Liebermann,  ArcA.  ci,  p.  15  ff.;  Brandl,  Grundriss,  \\  p.  106. 


98  EARLY    POETRY    AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

been  ruled  by  a  king  named  Hermegisklos  who,  being  anxious 
to  establish  his  throne  on  a  secure  foundation,  sought  and 
obtained  in  marriage  a  sister  of  Theodberht,  king  of  the  Franks. 
By  a  previous  wife  he  had  an  only  son  named  Radiger,  who  at 
this  time  was  betrothed  to  a  sister  of  the  king  of  the  Angli  and 
had  paid  her  a  large  sum  of  money  in  furtherance  of  his  suit'. 
One  day,  when  the  king  was  riding  in  a  certain  place  with  the 
chief  men  of  his  nation,  he  saw  a  bird  sitting  on  a  tree  and 
croaking  loudly.  Now,  whether  it  was  that  he  really  understood 
what  the  bird  said,  or  whether  he  had  some  other  source  of 
information  but  pretended  that  the  bird  was  uttering  a  prophecy 
which  he  understood — at  all  events  he  declared  on  the  spot  to 
his  companions  that  he  would  die  forty  days  later,  for  this  had 
been  clearly  foretold  to  him  by  the  bird-.  Thereupon  he  gives 
advice  as  to  what  should  be  done  after  his  death,  namely  that 
Radiger  should  marry  his  widow,  in  accordance  with  national 
custom,  and  dissolve  his  engagement  with  the  English  princess. 
On  the  fortieth  day  the  king  died,  and  Radiger  proceeds  to 
carry  out  his  injunctions.  But  the  princess,  infuriated  at  his 
conduct,  gathers  together  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  vessels  and 
invades  the  land  of  the  Warni  with  100,000  men.  Radiger's 
army  is  completely  defeated,  and  he  takes  refuge  in  a  dense 
forest.  The  princess  insists  on  his  being  taken  alive  at  all 
costs,  and  eventually  he  is  captured  and  brought  before  her. 
He  expects  to  be  put  to  death,  but  after  explaining  the  cause 
of  his  action,  he  is  pardoned  on  condition  that  he  returns  to  his 
former  engagement. 

This  story  contains  a  number  of  features,  such  as  the 
prophecy  of  the  bird,  the  payment  of  the  '  bride-fee '  and 
.Radiger's  marriage  with  his  stepmother,  which  show  clearly 
that  it  was  derived  from  someone  who  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  peoples  of  northern  Europe.  There  is  no  ground  for 
disputing   that   it   has  a  historical  basis ;  but  at  the  same  time 

1   XPV/J-ciTa  fieydXa  ti^  riis  fivrjarflas  avT-rj  8f5wKui$  \6y(ji. 

^  ovTos  avr)p  ^vv  Ovdpvwv  roh  Xo7iynarrd.Tots  iv  x^P'^V  '''V  i-'TTrevd/j.ei'os  6pviv  riva.  iwl 
8iv5pov  re  KaOrjfj^vriv  elde  Kal  TroXXa  Kpdj^vaav.  ttre  8^  ttjs  opvidos  r^s  (pwvrts  ^vveU  elre 
SlKKo  ixiv  TL  ^fe7r«rrd/xe»'oj,  ^uve'ivai  5e  Trjs  6puL0oi  fiavrevofMivT/s  Teparevcrdfufos,  roii 
irapovcnv  tvdvi  i<paaKev  (is  TeOmfj^eTai  TeaaapaKovra  ijfiipais  iiffrepov.  tovto  yap  aimjj 
TTjV  TTjj  opuiOoi  SrjXovu  irp6ppr)<Tiv. 


V]  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY  99 

it  is  obviously  much  more  than  a  mere  record  of  facts.  Apart 
from  the  incident  of  the  bird  and  the  gross  exaggeration 
apparent  in  certain  details  ^  the  pictorial  character  of  the 
narrative,  especially  in  its  earlier  part,  indicates  a  close  affinity 
with  heroic  poetry.  Un-heroic  features  are  not  wanting — the 
introduction  of  nameless  persons  and  the  political  reflections 
of  Irmingisl — but  they  may  with  probability  be  attributed  to 
Procopius  himself  x  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  his  source 
of  information  was  an  epic  poem,  but  I  do  think  that  the 
intellectual  atmosphere  which  could  produce  such  a  story  must 
have  been  exactly  of  the  kind  most  favourable  to  the  growth  of 
such  compositions. 

Procopius,  as  we  have  seen,  places  this  war  in  or  about  the 
year  551,  and  we  can  certainly  understand  the  course  of  events 
more  easily  if  it  took  place  after  Theodberht's  death  (A.D.  548). 
Therefore,  since  Procopius'  work  appears  to  have  been  written 
within  the  next  seven  or  eight  years,  the  story  had  had  little 
time  to  develop  before  it  came  to  his  ears.  On  the  other  hand 
we  must  remember  that  it  refers  to  a  distant  region — a  fact  I 
think  not  without  significance  for  the  history  of  contemporary 
narrative  poetry.  To  persons  who  had  themselves  taken  part 
in  the  events  poems  like  that  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh  would 
appeal  much  more  strongly  than  purely  narrative  pieces.  It  is 
for  persons  who  were  either  ignorant  of  the  events  or  knew  them 
only  by  hearsay  that  the  latter  would  seem  to  be  primarily 
intended. 

In  this  discussion  we  have  taken  no  account  of  the  heroic 
poems  of  the  Edda.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  poems 
must  be  assigned  to  Stage  IV  of  our  scheme ;  for  though  some 
of  them  are  probably  three  or  four  centuries  older  than  the 
German  poems  of  this  class,  they  bear  fairly  obvious  marks  of 
the  disintegrating  process  which  seems  to  characterise  popular 
poetry-.      It  may  be  asked  how  such  an  opinion  is  compatible 

'  It  is  not  clear  whether  the  marvellous  account  of  Britain  which  follows  this  story 
comes  from  the  same  source  or  not. 

-  They  certainly  resemble  poems  of  Stage  11  both  in  form  and  spirit  much  more 
closely  than  their  German  counterparts  do.  But  this  may  be  due  partly  to  the  fact 
that  Stage  ni  was  of  much  shorter  duration  in  their  case. 


ICX)  EARLY  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY        [CHAP. 

with  the  view  that  the  story  of  SigurSr  was  derived  from  the 
Continent  during  the  seventh  century  (cf.  p.  59),  The  true 
explanation  is,  I  believe,  that  heroic  poetry  passed  through 
Stage  III  after  it  became  known  in  Norway. 

We  noted  in  an  earlier  chapter  (pp.  30,  ^t,)  that  Norway  plays 
no  part  in  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age.  On  the  other  hand  it  has 
what  we  may  call  a  Heroic  Age  of  its  own — namely  the  Viking 
Age.  We  have  no  poems — and  few  stories  of  any  kind — dealing 
with  persons  of  Norwegian  nationality  who  lived  before  that 
period.  The  remoteness,  poverty  and  mountainous  nature  of  the 
country  doubtless  retarded  its  development,  not  only  politically 
but  also  in  the  cultivation  of  poetry.  The  strophic  character 
of  all  Norse  poetry  is  generally  held  to  point  to  a  choric  origin, 
and  it  may  very  well  be  that  this  primitive  type  of  poetry  was 
the  only  one  used  in  Norway  when  the  heroic  stories  first  became 
known  there.  Possibly  it  was  to  Frisian  and  Danish  minstrels 
that  the  change  was  due^  But  the  conditions  suitable  for  a 
flourishing  court-poetry,  like  that  of  the  Heroic  Age,  scarcely 
existed  before  the  last  years  of  the  eighth  century,  when 
Norwegian  princes  had  begun  to  enrich  themselves  with  maritime 
enterprises. 

^  A  reminiscence  of  such  minstrels  may  perhaps  be  preserved  in  the  story  of  the 
unfortunate  Heimir,  who  fled  to  Norway  with  the  child  Aslaug  concealed  in  a  harp 
and  was  murdered  there  by  a  peasant  from  whom  he  had  sought  hospitality  { l^o/s. 
Saga,  cap.  43). 


V]  SLAVONIC   HEROIC    POETRY  lOI 

NOTE  IV.     ON  THE  HEROIC  POETRY  OF 
THE  SLAVONIC  PEOPLES. 

The  nearest  modern  analogy,  at  least  in  Europe,  to  the  types  of  poetry 
which  we  have  been  discussing  is  probably  to  be  found  among  the  various 
peoples  of  Serbo-Croatian  nationality.  As  an  example  we  may  take  the 
poetry  current  among  the  Mohammedan  population  of  Bosnia^.  Since  the 
occupation  of  that  province  a  large  number  of  narrative  poems  have  been 
collected  and  published,  though  only  a  few  are  as  yet  accessible  in  transla- 
tions. These  poems  afford  an  interesting  illustration  of  our  subject,  not 
only  because  they  deal  with  similar  themes — heroism  in  battle,  single 
combats,  love  and  revenge — and  often  in  quite  as  full  detail,  but  also  since 
the  events  with  which  they  are  concerned  and  the  conditions  they  reflect 
belong  to  a  well-marked  historical  period,  which  we  may  regard  as  a  kind 
of  Heroic  Age.  The  period  in  question  embraces  the  greater  part  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  more  especially  the  latter,  a  time  when 
the  Turkish  Empire  was  at  the  height  of  its  power,  and  when  its  armies 
were  frequently  engaged  in  hostilities  with  the  Austrians  in  Hungary  and 
Croatia.  Many  of  the  characters  mentioned  in  the  poems  are  well  known 
historical  persons. 

But  beyond  all  this  the  value  of  the  illustration  lies  largely  in  the  fact 
that  we  have  here  what  may  be  called  a  living  heroic  poetry,  such  as  we 
hear  of  among  the  Teutonic  peoples  only  through  occasional  notices  in 
ancient  records.  As  among  the  latter  it  is  customary  for  the  minstrel 
{ph/ac,  dial,  ior  pjevac)  to  accompany  his  recitation  on  a  musical  instrument, 
the  tambura,  a  kind  of  guitar  with  only  two  metal  strings.  Among  the 
Christian  population  the  gusle,  a  primitive  type  of  fiddle,  is  in  use. 

The  poems  vary  greatly  in  length.  Out  of  320  pieces  collected  by 
Dr  Marjanovic  thirty  contained  less  than  100  verses,  while  fifteen  exceeded 
2000,  the  longest  of  all  amounting  to  over  4000.  The  average  length  of 
the  pieces  described  as  epic  is  given  at  873  verses  ;  a  hundred  and  three 
vary  from  600  to  1000,  and  sixty-two  from  1000  to  1500.  These  figures  are 
especially  important  in  view  of  their  bearing  on  certain  prevalent  ideas  as 
to  the  limits  of  oral  poetry.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  ordinary  Servian 
metre  is  decasyllabic,  the  verse  not  being  appreciably  shorter  than  the 
average  Teutonic  alliterative  verse.  The  minstrel  begins  his  recitation 
quite  slowly,  but  after  about  a  hundred  verses  he  attains  such  a  speed  that 
not  even  a  shorthand  writer  can  keep  pace  with  him.  Such  recitations  are 
extremely  fatiguing,  and  in  the  longer  poems  it  is  customary  to  allow 
intervals  of  rest  for  refreshments,  questions  and  criticism.     It  will  be  seen 

^  The  first  part  of  this  note  is  mainly  derived  from  an  interesting  paper  by 
Prof.  M.  Murko  in  the  Zeitschrift  des  Vereins  fiir  Volkskunde  (Berlin),  1909,  p.  13  ff-, 
to  which  the  reader  is  referred  for  further  information  and  authorities.  The  collections 
of  poems  published  by  Marjanovic  and  Hermann  have  not  been  accessible  to  me. 


I02  SLAVONIC    HEROIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

that  if  carried  out  on  these  principles  the  recitation  of  a  Teutonic  poem  of 
2000,  or  even  3000,  verses  would  be  nothing  impossible  in  the  course  of  a 
long  evening's  entertainment. 

In  the  '  recitation  '  great  freedom  is  allowed.  A  minstrel  need  only  hear 
a  poem  two  or  three  times  (once,  if  it  is  sung)  in  order  to  reproduce  it  ;  but 
the  reproduction  is  by  no  means  given  in  the  same  words.  To  a  certain 
degree,  says  Prof.  Murko,  every  minstrel  is  a  more  or  less  creative  poet 
(' Nachdichter').  But  even  by  the  same  man  a  poem  is  never  repeated  in 
exactly  the  same  words.  In  the  course  of  years  changes  may  be  introduced 
which  apparently  render  it  almost  unrecognisable.  Some  minstrels  are 
experts  in  particular  lines,  special  popularity  being  enjoyed  by  those  who 
know  best  how  to  describe  a  girl's  dress  or  the  trappings  of  a  horse.  The 
faculty  for  expansion  and  compression  is  also  very  marked.  Cases  are 
known  of  minstrels  who  have  doubled  and  even  trebled  the  length  of  poems 
which  they  had  heard.  In  one  instance  two  variants  of  a  poem  are  known, 
of  which  one  contains  1284  verses,  the  other  barely  300.  Such  cases,  as 
Prof  Murko  remarks,  supply  interesting  evidence  for  the  origin  of  different 
recensions  of  epic  poems — particularly,  we  may  add,  for  the  relationship  of 
lays  and  epics. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  clear  enough  that  the  poems  are 
preserved  by  oral  tradition.  Vague  rumours  of  written  texts  are  heard  of 
from  time  to  time  and,  though  none  have  yet  been  discovered,  it  seems 
probable  that  some  poems  have  been  committed  to  writing  in  the  past. 
But  the  minstrels  of  the  present  day  are  invariably  unable  to  read  or  write. 
As  to  the  age  and  origin  of  the  poems  nothing  is  known  for  certain,  though 
most  of  them  are  believed  to  be  about  two  centuries  old.  Four  minstrels 
knew  of  an  authoress — a  certain  *  pale-cheeked  Ajka '  from  the  Lika  (in 
Croatia) ;  but  regarding  her  little  or  no  information  seems  to  have  been 
obtained.  The  other  minstrels  could  only  give  the  names  of  those  from 
whom  they  had  themselves  heard  the  poems. 

The  minstrels  belong  to  various  stations  of  life.  Some  are  men  of  good 
family,  but  the  majority  are  peasant  proprietors  or  workmen.  Not  many 
carry  on  minstrelsy  as  a  regular  profession,  except  when  they  have  fallen  on 
bad  times.  The  recitations  are  given  in  coffee-houses  or  at  any  holiday 
gathering.  Very  often  too  the  minstrels  are  invited  to  the  residences  of  the 
Begs'.     The  case  is  recorded  of  one  minstrel  who  recited  over  a  hundred 

'  Some  interesting  remarks  relating  to  the  prevalence  of  minstrelsy — apparently 
among  the  Christian  population — during  the  eighteenth  century  are  to  be  found  in 
Fortis'  Travels  into  Dalmatia  (London,  1778).  "A  Morlacco  travels  along  the 
desert  mountains  singing,  especially  in  the  night  time,  the  actions  of  ancient  Slavi 

kings  and  barons  or  some  tragic  event Although  the  Morlacchi  usually  sing  their 

ancient  songs,  yet  other  poetry  is  not  altogether  extinguished  among  them  ;  and  their 
musicians,  after  singing  an  ancient  piece,  accompanied  with  the  guzla,  sometimes 
finish  it  with  some  extempore  verses,  in  praise  of  the  personage  by  whom  they  are 
employed  "  (tb.,  p.  85). 


V]  SLAVONIC    HEROIC    POETRY  IO3 

poems  for  a  certain  Beg  within  six  weeks.  The  Mohammedan  ladies  are 
especially  fond  of  such  recitations.  For  his  services  the  minstrel  receives 
payment,  sometimes  in  money,  sometimes  in  corn  or  livestock,  sometimes 
only  in  coffee  and  cigarettes. 

It  will  not  escape  notice  that  a  good  deal  of  what  is  said  here  might  be 
applied  with  considerable  probability  to  the  Frisian  minstrel  Bernlef  or  the 
English  minstrels  mentioned  by  Alcuin.  Indeed,  apart  from  the  coffee  and 
cigarettes,  there  is  scarcely  a  single  feature  in  the  description  given  above 
for  which  we  should  not  expect  to  find  parallels  in  Teutonic  minstrelsy 
towards  the  close  of  the  eighth  century.  We  may  therefore  reasonably  look 
for  traces  of  those  characteristics  which  distinguish  Stage  III  in  the  history 
of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry,  and  in  point  of  fact  there  seems  to  be  abundant 
evidence  in  this  direction  ^  The  action  is  usually  spread  over  a  considerable 
time.  The  characters  mentioned  by  name  are  few  in  number  and  recur 
again  and  again  in  different  stories,  each  district  apparently  having  a 
favourite  hero  who  is  introduced  as  its  representative  on  many  different 
occasions 2.  Geographical  indications  are  very  frequently  erroneous,  while 
historical  persons  figure  in  quite  unhistorical  relationships.  The  unsympa- 
thetic characters  are  often  guilty  of  atrocious  brutality.  Moreover,  we 
constantly  find  repetitions  of  the  same  words  or  formulae  in  consecutive 
verses  after  the  manner  of  ballads.  Indeed  the  characteristics  of  the  poems 
generally — their  merits  as  well  as  their  faults — are  to  a  large  extent  those  of 
popular  rather  than  court  poetry. 

But,  though  the  poems  show  the  characteristics  which  we  associate  with 
Stage  III,  it  is  questionable  whether  we  are  justified  in  including  them  in 
this  category  ;  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  have  passed  through  any- 
thing corresponding  to.  Stages  I  and  1 1.  Practically  the  only  court  which 
they  know  at  all  is  that  of  Stamboul,  and  of  this  their  knowledge  is  naturally 
slight  and  remote.  The  highest  personages  with  whom  they  are  really 
acquainted  are  the  Begs.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  in  the  days  of  Turkish 
supremacy — the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries — the  provincial  nobility 
were  much  more  wealthy  and  influential  than  they  now  are  ;  and  it  may  be 
that  some  Begs  then  had  minstrels  attached  to  their  own  personal  following. 
But  their  position  can  never  have  been  comparable  with  that  of  even 
petty  Teutonic  princes.  Hence,  if  we  are  entitled  to  suggest  the  previous 
existence  of  court-poetry  at  all,  it  can  only  be  in  a  very  restricted  sense — so 
far  at  least  as  the  extant  poems  are  concerned. 

On  the  other  hand  Servian  poetry  has  without  doubt  had  a  long  history, 
and  even  heroic  poems  are  by  no  means  the  exclusive  property  of  the 
Mohammedan    population.     Indeed    some   of   the    Christian   poems^  seem 

^  The  following  observations  are  based  on  the  poems  published  in  Krauss' 
Slavische   Volkforschungen. 

^  Thus  in  a  number  of  poems  the  Beg  Ljubovic  appears  as  the  representative 
of  Hercegovina. 

*  Especially  several  of  those  dealing  with  the  battle  of  Kossovo  1389),  to  which 
we  shall  have  to  refer  in  a  later  note. 


I04     •  SLAVONIC   HEROIC    POETRY  [CHAP. 

to  exhibit  the  characteristics  of  Stage  ill  to  a  far  less  degree  than  the 
Mohammedan  ones  ;  and  they  frequently  deal  with  much  earlier  events. 
It  is  likely  enough  that  the  beginnings  of  heroic  poetry  go  back  to  the 
fourteenth  or  fifteenth  centuries',  at  which  time  its  growth  may  have  been 
fostered  by  conditions  much  more  similar  to  those  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic 
Age.  To  this  question  we  shall  have  to  refer  again.  The  subject  as  a  whole 
however  is  one  which  must  be  left  to  experts.  In  order  to  form  a  sound 
opinion  one  would  have  to  take,  account  of  the  history  of  narrative  poetry 
among  the  neighbouring  peoples,  more  especially  the  Bulgarians  and 
Slovenians^.  The  total  change  of  subjects  in  the  Mohammedan  poems 
would  be  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  change  of  faith  ;  that  heroic  poetry 
survived  such  a  change  at  all  is  probably  to  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  nobility  in  Bosnia  embraced  Islam. 

Before  we  leave  the  subject  however  note  must  be  taken  of  one  more 
important  feature  in  the  poems.  The  Mohammedan  Bosnians  were  religious 
fanatics,  and  the  spirit  of  religious  war  is  generally  present.  It  is  not 
absolutely  universal  ;  some  poems  even  represent  Moslems  and  Christians 
in  sworn  brotherhood.  As  a  rule  however  the  world  is  regarded  as  divided 
into  two  hostile  camps,  one  under  the  Sultan  (Car),  the  other  under  the 
Emperor  (Cesar).  In  this  respect,  as  in  several  others,  Bosnian  poetry 
shows  affinity  with  the  Old  French  epics,  whereas  in  early  Teutonic  poetry 
differences  of  creed,  and  even  nationality,  are  scarcely  recognised. 

In  the  north  of  Russia  numerous  ballads  are  still  current  which  seem  to 
be  based  on  events  much  more  remote  than  anything  treated  in  Servian 
poetry.  Many  of  them  deal  with  stories  relating  to  the  time  of  Vladimir  I, 
who  ruled  over  Kiev  about  980-1015,  and  their  antiquity  is  rendered  highly 
probable  by  the  fact  that  the  same  king,  together  with  his  chief  hero,  Ilja  of 
Murom,  figures  in  ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern.  In  their  present  form  these 
ballads  show  the  characteristics  of  popular  poetry  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  are  scarcely  distinguishable  from  folk-tales.  Yet  it  is  possible  that 
they  are  in  part  descended  from  poems  which  might  fairly  be  brought  under 
Stages  I  and  11  of  our  scheme. 

At  all  events  there  is  some  reason  for  suspecting  that  in  early  times 
court-poetry  was  not  unknown  in  Russia.  Evidence  to  this  effect  is  supplied 
by  the  Slovo  o  polku  Igoreve  ('  Story  of  Igor's  expedition '),  which  may  be 

'  There  are  references  to  the  existence  of  heroic  poetry  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Spalato  and  Sebenico  as  far  back  as  the  sixteenth  century ;  cf.  Murko,  Arch.  f.  slav. 
PhiloL,  XXVIII  378.  A  much  earlier  reference  has  been  traced  in  Nicephorus 
Gregoras'  account  {Hist.  Byz.,  VI 1 1  14)  of  his  mission  to  the  court  of  Stephan  Uro§ 
in  the  year  1326,  where  it  is  stated  of  his  followers:  (fxiovah  ixp^iiivro  kuI  fiiXeai 
rpaytKois'  ydov  d'  apa  K\ia  avdpQiv  wv  olov  KKios  aKovofj.ev  oi/Si  rot  iSfiev.  But  it  is 
extremely  doubtful  whether  these  persons  were  Servians. 

"^  In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Slovenians  of  Tolmino  used  to  sing 
"di  Mattia  re  d'  Ungheria  e  di  altri  celebri  personaggi  di  quella  nazione"  (Murko, 
Zeitschr.  d.  Vereins  f.   Volksk.,  1909,  p.  14,  note).     Matthias  Hunyadi  died  in  1490. 


V]  SLAVONIC    HEROIC    POETRY  ■      105 

described  as  an  epic,  though  it  has  no  fixed  metrical  form.  The  subject  is 
a  disastrous  expedition  undertaken  by  Igor,  the  son  of  Svjatoslav,  against 
the  Polovtses  on  the  Don  in  the  year  11 85.  It  is  beheved  to  be  an 
absolutely  contemporary  work,  composed  within  two  years  of  the  event. 
Both  in  language  and  spirit  it  shows  rather  a  striking  resemblance  to 
Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poetry.  "  Igor  leads  his  soldiers  to  the  Don  :  the  birds 
in  the  thicket  forebode  his  misfortune  ;  the  wolves  bristle  up  and  howl  a 
storm  in  the  mountain  clefts  ;  the  eagles   screech  and  call  the  beasts  to 

a  feast  of  bones;  the  foxes  bark  for  the  crimson  shields The  Russians 

bar  the  long  fields  with  their  crimson  shields,  seeking  honour  for  themselves 
and  glory  for  the  Prince  ^"  There  are  frequent  references  also  to  mythical 
beings.  It  is  held  by  many  that  this  work  was  composed  by  a  bard  who 
belonged  to  the  druzina  or  military  following  of  the  prince  and  that  it  is 
the  last  relic  of  what  may  once  have  been  a  considerable  body  of  poetry. 
Certainly  we  may  note  that  the  author  repeatedly  refers  to  a  certain  '  Bojan 
the  Wise,  nightingale  of  ancient  time,'  a  poet  vvho  is  unknown  from  other 
sources,  but  who  apparently  lived  nearly  a  century  before  the  composition 
of  the  Slovo.  This  carries  us  back  practically  to  what  we  may  call  the 
Russian  Heroic  Age,  for  Bojan  is  represented  as  singing  the  praises  of  the 
sons  of  Vladimir  I.  In  their  time  the  Russian  courts  still  maintained 
intimate  relations  with  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms.  Vladimir  indeed 
appears  to  have  had  Norwegians  in  his  service,  and  Olafr  Tryggvason 
is  said  to  have  been  brought  up  at  his  court.  It  is  scarcely  impossible 
therefore  that  this  early  poetry  may  have  been  due,  in  part  at  least,  to 
Scandinavian  influence. 


NOTE  V.  THE  HEROIC  POETRY  OF  THE 
CELTIC  PEOPLES. 

In  the  history  of  the  various  Celtic  peoples  there  is  evidence  for  the 
existence  of  more  than  one  Heroic  Age.  In  the  first  place  we  have  some 
traces  of  heroic  poetry  among  the  ancient  Gauls,  though  unfortunately  it 
has  entirely  perished,  together  with  all  their  vernacular  records.  Then 
again  Ireland  has  preserved  a  great  body  of  heroic  literature,  referring  to  a 
remote  period.  But,  whatever  may  have  been  their  original  form,  these 
stories  have  come  down  to  us  for  the  most  part  only  in  prose.  Moreover, 
the  subject  is  beset  with  so  many  difficulties,  both  historical  and  linguistic, 
that  it  cannot  be  approached  with  safety  except  by  an  expert.  We  shall 
have  to  confine  our  attention  therefore  to  the  heroic  poetry  of  the  Cymry. 

Even  here  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  are  sufficiently  serious.  Yet 
it  is  fairly  clear  that  many  of  these  poems  deal  with  events  which  are 
referred  by  the  chronicles  to  the  sixth  century  and  the  first  half  of  the 
seventh.    We  may  note  especially  four  groups  of  poems  :  (i)  a  few  concerned 

1  Wiener,  Anthology  of  Russian  Literature,  i  p.  84. 


I06  WELSH    HEROIC   POETRY  [CHAP. 

with  the  exploits  of  Arthur  and  his  heroes  ;  (2)  a  somewhat  larger  number 
referring  to  princes  named  Gwallawg,  Urien  and  Rhydderch  ;  (3)  certain 
poems  dealing  with  Gododin  and  Catraeth  ;  (4)  a  few  relating  to  Cadwallon. 
There  are  also  two  or  three  others,  such  as  the  elegy  over  Cynddylan,  which 
seem  to  refer  to  the  same  period,  though  they  cannot  be  classed  under  any 
of  these  headings.  A  number  of  the  above  poems,  especially  those  included 
in  the  second  and  third  groups,  are  attributed  to  two  poets  named  Taliessin 
and  Aneirin. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Cadwallon  is  the  well  known  Welsh  king  who 
overthrew  the  Northumbrian  king  Edwin  in  633  and  was  himself  destroyed 
by  Oswald  in  the  following  year.  But  the  poems  of  the  second  group  seem 
also  to  have  a  historical  basis.  In  the  Historia  Brittonum  (Harleian  text), 
§  63,  we  hear  of  four  kings,  Urbgen  et  Riderch  Hen  et  Guallanc  ct  Morcant^ 
who  fought  against  the  Northumbrian  king  Theodric  and  his  successors, 
Frithuwald  and  Hussa.  Urbgen  is  said  to  have  besieged  his  opponents 
for  three  days  in  Lindisfarne  {Meicaud),  and  to  have  perished  eventually 
through  the  jealousy  of  Morcant.  In  another  passage  (§  62)  we  hear  of 
Neirin  et  Taliessin  among  other  poets  who  composed  British  poetry  in  the 
time  of  a  king  named  Dutigirn^,  who  is  made  contemporary  with  Ida,  the. 
father  of  Theodric.  The  origin  of  these  entries  is  unfortunately  obscure. 
They  are  incorporated  with  an  English  genealogical  document,  dating 
apparently  from  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  ;  but  they  may  quite  possibly 
be  derived  from  earlier  sources.  In  any  case  they  cannot  well  be  later  than 
the  first  quarter  of  the  ninth  century. 

All  the  four  kings  mentioned  in  §  63  are  known  to  us  also  from 
genealogies  of  the  tenth  century.  But  one  of  them,  Riderch  Hen,  is 
named  in  Adamnan's  Life  of  St  Columba,  which  is  of  course  altogether 
independent  of  Welsh  tradition.  It  is  there  stated  (I  15^)  that  Rodercus, 
king  of  Dumbarton,  consulted  St  Columba  as  to  his  fate  and  received  the 
answer  that  he  would  die  a  peaceful  death  in  his  house — a  prophecy  which 
was  subsequently  fulfilled.  As  St  Columba  died  probably  in  597,  the  date 
given  for  Riderch  Hen  agrees  well  enough  with  what  is  stated  in  the 
Historia  Brittonum  ;  for  according  to  the  most  trustworthy  records  Theodric 
and  his  two  immediate  successors  reigned  from  about  572  to  592  or  593.  We 
have  no  ground  for  doubting  that  the  references  to  Urbgen  and  the  rest  are 
based  on  equally  good  tradition. 

For  the  characters  mentioned  in  the  Gododin  poems  no  such  evidence 
is  available.  The  poems  themselves  however  contain  references  to  the 
death  oi Dyvynwal  Vrych — doubtless  the  Dalriadic  king  Domnall  Brecc,  who 
according  to  the  Irish  annals  was  killed  by  the  Britons  three  years  after  the 
fall  of  Oswald,  i.e.  about  the  year  645.     Unfortunately  it  is  not  made  clear 

1  Tunc  Dutigirn  in  illo  ie7npore  fortiter  diviicabat  contra  gentem  Anglorum.  tunc 
Talhcurn  Tatagtien  in  pocfnale  claruit,  et  Neirin  et  Taliessin  et  Bluchbard  et  Cian, 
qui  uocatur  Gueinth  Gtiaut,  simul  uno  tempore  in  poemate  Britannito  claruerunt . 

^  De  rege  Roderco,  filio  Tothail,  qui  in  Petra  Cloithe  regnauit. 


V]  WELSH    HEROIC    POETRY  IO7 

in  what  relationship  this  event  stands  to  the  main  action  of  the  poems'. 
The  few  identifications  which  can  be  made  from  the  genealogies  seem  to 
be  compatible  with  a  date  somewhere  about  this  time. 

There  can  scarcely  be  any  doubt  that  we  are  justified  in  regarding  the 
period  covered  by  the  poems  as  a  kind  of  Heroic  Age.  The  story  of  Arthur 
was  the  one  most  elaborated  in  later  times — a  process  which  must  have 
begun  before  the  ninth  century,  when  it  was  incorporated  in  the  Historia 
Brittonum  (§  56).  How  much  historical  truth  this  story  contains  we  do 
not  know,  though  the  chronicles  refer  Arthur  to  the  early  part  of  the  sixth 
century,  i.e.  the  beginning  of  our  period.  To  a  certain  extent  however  the 
other  stories  have  experienced  the  same  process  ;  for,  apart  from  the  question 
when  the  poems  under  discussion  were  composed,  there  are  others  of  un- 
doubtedly later  date,  such  as  the  Englynion  y  Beddau,  in  which  the  same 
heroes  are  mentioned.  Moreover  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  these  were 
the  only  persons  of  the  same  period  whose  praises  were  celebrated  in 
poetry.  Maelgwn,  king  of  Gwynedd,  who  died  about  548,  figures  prominently 
in  traditions  of  later  times,  and  it  is  likely  enough  that  the  beginnings  of 
these  stories  were  due  to  a  similar  cause.  On  the  other  hand  there  is 
apparently  no  evidence  for  the  composition  of  poems  dealing  with  the 
exploits  of  princes  who  lived  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century  or 
for  several  centuries  later. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  poems  discussed  above  we  have  no  evidence 
which  can  be  called  conclusive.  Some  of  the  poems  themselves  claim  to 
be  the  work  of  the  poets  Aneirin  and  Taliessin.  At  the  present  time 
however  it  seems  to  be  generally  held^  that  they  are  scholastic  products 
of  a  later  age,  based  upon  chronicles  and  composed  with  the  intention  of 
glorifying  the  ancestry  of  some  distinguished  Welsh  families.  In  support 
of  this  view  it  is  contended  that  the  language  of  the  poems  cannot  possibly 
represent  the  form  of  Welsh  spoken  in  the  sixth  or  seventh  centuries.  But 
this  argument  is  scarcely  decisive  ;  for  it  is  clear  that  parts  of  the  poems 
have  undergone  a  certain  amount  of  modernisation,  and  it  is  by  no  means 
incredible  that  the  same  process  may  have  been  in  operation  for  centuries. 
I  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  in  order  to  celebrate  the  ancestry  of  certain 
families  poems  would  be  composed  recording  an  action  which  is  represented 
as  an  overwhelming  disaster  for  the  British  forces,  such  as  that  described  in 
the  Gododin  poems.  And  can  it  really  be  proved  that  many  of  the  heroes 
celebrated  in  these  poems  were  claimed  as  ancestors  by  families  in  Wales  ? 

At  all  events  it  is  clear  that  the  author  of  the  entries  in  the  Historia 
Brittonum  knew  of  ancient  British  poets.  Neirin  and  Taliessin  are  only 
two  out  of  five  names  recorded  by  him,  the  rest  apparently  being  altogether 

'  It  is  possibly  worth  noting  that  the  Irish  annals  record  a  battle  between  Oswio 
and  the  Britons  in  the  same  year  as  Domnall  Brecc's  death  ;  cf.  Skene,  Chronicles  of 
the  Picts  and  Scots,  pp.  70,  348. 

"^  This  view  is  favoured  by  Prof.  Anwyl  in  his  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Old 
Welsh  Poetry  (Trans,  of  the  Hon.  Soc.  of  Cymmrodorion,  1903-4),  p.  7  f . 


I08  WELSH    HEROIC    POETRY  [CHAP. 

unknown  from  other  sources ^  It  is  true  that  he  places  all  these  persons 
about  a  generation  before  Urien  and  Rhydderch  Hen,  but  chronological 
accuracy  is  hardly  to  be  expected  in  references  to  such  a  remote  period. 
Certainly  we  should  note  that  the  last  British  king  mentioned  in  these 
entries  is  a  certain  Cadafael  {Catgabail  Cat^^uovimed)^  who  is  said  to  have 
escaped  alone  from  the  battle  in  which  Penda  was  killed  (ad.  655).  The 
wording  of  this  passage  (§  65)  seems  rather  to  suggest  acquaintance  with 
a  poem  on  the  subject. 

We  have  seen  now  that  the  persons  and  events  celebrated  in  the  poems 
belong  to  a  period  extending  roughly  from  500  to  650  and  that  there  are 
ancient  records  of  famous  British  poets,  who  are  referred  to  the  earlier 
part  of  this  period  and  of  whom  two  are  traditionally  associated  with  the 
poems.  Next  we  must  notice  that  the  poems  themselves,  even  in  the 
corrupt  and  often  unintelligible  form  in  which  they  are  preserved,  plainly 
show  all  the  marks  of  Stage  I  of  our  scheme.  Their  characteristics  are 
those  of  court-poetry,  but  they  never  attain  to  true  narrative.  For  analogies 
to  the  poems  which  deal  with  Urien  we  can  hardly  do  better  than  turn  to 
the  court-poetry  of  the  Viking  Age  (cf  pp.  15  f ,  91)  ;  for  the  Gododin  poems 
perhaps  the  best  parallels  are  to  be  found  in  the  Battle  of  Maldon  and  the 
Story  of  Igor's  Expedition,  though  in  both  the  latter  the  narrative  element 
is  much  more  fully  developed.  Taking  all  the  evidence  into  account,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  choice  lies  between  two  alternatives  :  either  the  poems 
really  are  works  of  Stage  i,  which  have  survived  from  the  Heroic  Age  itself, 
or  they  are  exceedingly  clever  imitations  of  such  works,  composed  at  a  time 
when  the  latter  were  still  in  existence.  The  decision  between  these  two 
alternatives  must  of  course  be  left  to  experts.  In  the  meantime  we  shall  be 
ready  to  admit  that  the  poems  are  extremely  corrupt,  and  that  in  some  cases 
perhaps  we  have  nothing  more  than  disjecta  membra  of  earlier  pieces.  But 
until  conclusive  evidence  is  brought  forward  it  seems  to  me  highly  improbable 
that  the  original  poems  have  been  entirely  lost^. 

The  history  of  Cumbrian  heroic  poetry  is  easily  intelligible  when  taken 
in  connection  with  the  national  history.  It  is  probable  enough  that  on  the 
withdrawal  of  the  legions  large  portions  of  the  country  were  occupied  by 
northern  Britons  from  beyond  the  Wall — who  are  represented  in  tradition 
by    Cunedda   and   his    sons^.     These   were   doubtless   affected   by  Roman 

^  It  has  been  suggested  that  Bluchbard  (cf.  p.  106,  note)  may  be  a  corruption  of 
the  name  Llywarch.  Certainly  the  form  Neirin  (which  is  thought  to  be  due  to 
a  misunderstanding  of  aneirin  as  et  neirin)  seems  to  show  that  the  scribe  himself  had 
no  knowledge  of  Aneirin. 

-  The  question  of  the  antiquity  of  the  poems  must  of  course  be  distinguished  from 
that  of  their  authorship.  If  they  are,  even  in  part,  the  work  of  Taliessin  and  Aneirin, 
we  must  conclude  that  these  poets  are  wrongly  dated  in  the  Historia  Brittonum. 

^  In  dealing  with  such  traditions  it  is  essential  to  remember  that  our  authorities 
date  from  times  when  (apart  from  Strathclyde)  the  Cymry  had  long  been  confined  to 
Wales  and  that  they  represent  the  point  of  view  of  writers  living  in  Wales.     If  the 


V]  WELSH    HEROIC    POETRY  IO9 

influence  to  a  very  much  less  degree  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  ; 
and  the  growth  of  heroic  poetry  during  the  sixth  century  may  be  satisfactorily 
accounted  for  by  the  wealth  and  prosperity  which  would  naturally  accrue 
to  their  princely  families  during  the  early  days  of  their  dominion.  It  was 
probably  not  until  the  time  of  Aethelfrith  that  their  power  was  really  broken. 
But  the  following  half  century  was  a  most  disastrous  period,  ending  in  the 
permanent  obliteration  of  their  nationality — in  a  political  sense — throughout 
the  whole  region  between  the  Dee  and  the  Clyde.  Any  records  which 
survived  must  owe  their  preservation,  ultimately  at  least,  to  refugees  who 
escaped  into  the  Welsh  highlands. 

Now  we  can  see  why  so  many  place-names  (Reged,  Catraeth  and  dozens 
of  others)  are  incapable  of  identification.  But  further,  the  conditions  in 
Wales,  the  poorest  and  probably  the  most  backward  part  of  the  province, 
were  doubtless  highly  unfavourable  to  the  development  of  heroic  poetry. 
Under  such  conditions  we  should  expect  that  narrative  poems  would  rapidly 
disintegrate  into  the  semblance  of  folk-tales  ;  and  it  may  be  that  here  we 
have  the  explanation  of  the  medieval  stories  of  Arthur.  At  all  events  they 
show  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  Russian  stories  of  Vladimir  and  his 
heroes.  But  Arthur,  as  we  have  seen,  belongs  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Heroic  Age.  We  have  no  evidence  for  the  composition  of  poems,  which 
can  properly  be  called  narrative,  dealing  with  the  later  heroes.  Here  the 
original  type  of  poem  seems  to  have  become  stereotyped — presumably 
because  conditions  favourable  to  development  were  no  longer  present.  The 
only  marvel  is  that  so  much  has  been  preserved. 

kings  of  Gwynedd  were  really  descended  from  the  '  men  of  the  north '  their  settlement 
in  that  region  is  probably  to  be  regarded  as  part  of  a  much  larger  movement,  of  which 
the  traces  elsewhere  were  obliterated  by  the  English  conquest. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENTS   IN  THE  HEROIC  STORIES. 

Most  of  the  heroic  poems  and  stories  which  have  come  down 
to  us  contain  elements  generally  comprehended  under  the  term 
'folk-tale'  (Marchen),  and  it  will  be  convenient  at  once  to  dis- 
tinguish tales  of  this  class  from  popular  tales  in  general.  Under 
the  latter  term  we  may  include  all  stories  which  are  frequently 
repeated  without  being  committed  to  writing.  It  is  on  such 
foundations  probably  that  all  the  surviving  heroic  poems  are 
built.  The  lapse  of  time  between  the  events  narrated  and  the 
composition  of  the  poem  may  amount  to  weeks  or  to  generations; 
in  certain  cases  the  story  may  be  wholly  fictitious — but  this 
does  not  affect  our  definition.  When  a  story  is  put  into  metrical 
form  by  a  skilful  poet  it  becomes  more  or  less  crystallised  and 
has  a  good  chance  of  being  preserved.  In  fact  the  result  is 
somewhat  similar  to  that  of  committing  it  to  writing.  Stories 
which  are  not  put  into  poetic  form  are  more  liable  to  become 
obscured  and  forgotten. 

The  term  '  folk-tale^'  is  of  less  wide  application.  Probably 
different  scholars  would  define  it  in  different  ways ;  but  in 
this  book  it  is  applied  only  to  stories  dealing  with  anonymous 
characters.  The  hero  or  heroine  (villain  etc.)  is  described  either 
(i)  as  'the  man,'  'the  girl,'  etc.,  or  (2)  by  some  common  name 
such  as  Jack  or  Hans,  which  conveys  no  means  of  identification, 
or  (3)  by  a  name  which  is  obviously  made  to  suit  his  or  her 
special  circumstances   or  characteristics,  such   as  Aschenbrodel 

^  Under  this  heading  we  may  include  metrical  compositions.    The  term  '  folk-song  ' 
cannot  conveniently  be  used  here,  as  it  has  acquired  a  wider  signification. 


CHAP.  VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  I  I  I 

or  Sneewitchen.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  limitation  would 
not  prevent  us  from  regarding  stories  about  the  gods  as  folk- 
tales in  origin  ;  for  most  of  the  gods  bear  descriptive  names,  e.g. 
Thunor,  Frig,  Balder,  Frey.  Yet  by  the  time  of  our  earliest 
authorities  these  names  had  come  to  denote  definite  personalities  ; 
and  consequently  we  must  classify  such  stories  in  a  separate 
category,  namely  as  myths.  On  the  other  hand  it  must  not  be 
assumed  that  the  presence  of  supernatural  features,  in  some  form 
or  other,  is  a  necessary  characteristic  of  folk-tales.  Such  features 
do  indeed  occur  very  frequently ;  but  that  is  due  merely  to  the 
fact  that  in  illiterate  societies  the  marvellous  has  a  special 
attraction  for  men's  minds. 

Into  the  origin  of  folk-tales  in  general  we  need  not  enter 
here.  Some  apparently  spring  from  attempts  to  account  for 
natural  phenomena,  social  customs  or  religious  rites.  Others 
are  probably  founded  on  adventures,  real  or  fictitious,  of  indi- 
viduals whose  names  have  been  forgotten.  Thus,  to  take  an 
instance,  the  story  of  Alfred  and  the  cakes  is  not  a  folk-tale 
according  to  our  standard ;  but  if  the  king's  name  had  been 
forgotten  we  should  have  no  hesitation  in  regarding  it  as  such. 
Again,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  modern  folk-tales  are 
derived  ultimately  from  literary  sources.  In  the  same  way  we 
must  regard  it  as  possible  that  in  earlier  times  many  folk-tales 
were  descended  from  heroic  poems. 

Prof  Olrik^  has  pointed  out  that  it  is  possible  very  often  to 
distinguish  between  the  Danish  and  Norse  sources  followed  by 
Saxo  in  his  History.  One  of  the  safest  criteria  is  the  presence 
or  absence  of  characters  whose  names  are  not  given.  In  stories 
of  Norse  origin,  as  in  Old  Norse  literature  generally,  it  is 
customary  for  every  character  to  have  a  name — a  characteristic 
which  also  distinguishes  the  old  heroic  poetry.  In  stories  derived 
from  Danish  sources  on  the  other  hand  the  characters  mentioned 
by  name  are  few  in  number.  A  good  instance  is  to  be  found  in 
the  story  of  Ingellus  (Ingeld),  which  in  consequence  of  the  loss 
of  proper  names  has  been  torn  right  away  from  its  true  con- 
nections— as  may  be  seen  by  a  comparison  with  Beowulf  Yet 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  as  we  have  seen,  that  this  story  is 

^  Kilderne  til  Sakses  Oldhistorie,  p.  i8  flF. 


112  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

ultimately  derived  from  heroic  poems.  It  would  appear  then 
that  Danish  tradition  tended  to  approximate  to  the  folk-tale. 

If  heroic  stories  sometimes  passed  into  folk-tales  it  is  still 
clearer  that  the  latter  tended  to  make  their  way  into  heroic 
stories.  We  shall  see  shortly  that  even  the  early  heroic  poems 
relate  a  number  of  incidents  which  seem  to  be  derived  from 
folk-tales,  while  in  the  later  forms  of  the  stories  such  incidents 
become  more  and  more  frequent,  most  commonly  in  connec- 
tion with  the  childhood  or  ancestry  of  the  hero.  The  same 
phenomenon  occurs  of  course  in  stories  of  famous  men  which 
have  nothing  to  do  with  heroic  poetry.  Thus  there  is  a  widely 
spread  folk-tale  (told  of  the  god  Thor  in  Old  Norse  literature), 
which  relates  how  some  animal,  a  goat,  reindeer  or  calf,  is  killed 
and  eaten,  but  care  is  taken  not  to  break  any  of  its  bones.  Then 
on  the  following  day  the  hero  restores  the  animal  to  life.  In 
the  Historia  Brittonum  (cap.  32)  this  story  is  related  of 
St  Germain,  the  well  known  bishop  of  Auxerre. 

It  is  a  more  difficult  question  and  one  which  we  shall  have 
to  discuss  later  whether  any  of  the  heroic  stories  are  wholly 
derived  from  folk-tales.  The  story  of  Balder  bears  the  stamp 
of  a  folk-tale,  for  the  chief  characters  (Balder,  HoSr,  Nanna) 
have  names  with  an  obvious  meaning.  But  it  is  only  in  Saxo's 
History  that  this  story  appears  in  a  heroic  setting;  and  though 
his  account  seems  to  be  more  primitive  in  several  respects  than 
that  given  by  the  Norse  authorities,  there  is  some  reason  for 
suspecting  that  either  he  himself  or  one  of  his  (comparatively 
recent)  predecessors  was  responsible  for  the  setting.  It  should 
be  observed  however  that  the  occurrence  of  one  or  more  names 
with  obvious  meanings  does  not  in  itself  prove  that  a  story  is 
derived  from  a  folk-tale.  Thus  in  the  story  of  HeSinn  and 
tlogni  the  fact  that  the  heroine  (in  contrast  with  the  other 
characters)  bears  a  name  which  means  '  war,'  does  not  of 
necessity  involve  her  origin  in  a  folk-tale  any  more  than  that 
of  her  namesake,  the  abbess  of  Whitby. 

Apart  from  the  distinguishing  feature  with  which  we  have 
been  dealing  folk-tales  as  a  class  have  certain  general  charac- 
teristics which  may  be  appreciated  by  a  comparison  with  those 
of    heroic   poetry.     In    the    last    chapter    (p.    82  f )  we    gave    a 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  II3 

short  list  of  the  characteristics  by  which  the  latter  is  specially 
distinguished.  To  all  these  the  typical  folk-tale  presents  a 
marked  contrast.  Some  of  the  leading  characters,  including 
either  the  hero  or  the  heroine  or  both,  are  usually  persons  of 
humble  birth.  The  opponents  of  the  hero  or  heroine  tend  to 
be  represented  as  monsters  of  cruelty  or  vice,  even  when  they 
are  of  royal  rank,  as  is  often  the  case.  There  is  no  inclination 
to  avoid  horrible  or  coarse  subjects.  Above  all  we  miss  those 
detailed  descriptions  of  court  life  upon  which  the  heroic  poems 
are  so  fond  of  dwelling.  The  life  and  thought  which  we  find 
reflected  in  folk-tales  is  that  not  of  the  court  but  of  the  village. 

It  would  of  course  be  rash  to  assume  that  folk-tales  formed 
the  sole  intellectual  pabulum  of  the  peasantry  in  early  time's. 
No  doubt  we  have  to  add  '  popular  tales,'  similar  to  those  which 
formed  the  foundation  of  the  heroic  poems.  But  since  these 
tales  were  not  put  into  poetic  form — i.e.  not  into  such  poetic 
form  as  would  ensure  their  preservation^ — they  were  always 
liable  to  disintegration  and  thus  were  constantly  approximating 
to  folk-tales.  Hence,  though  we  must  make  allowance  for 
influence  of  the  one  upon  the  other,  it  is  probably  not  so  very 
far  from  the  truth  that  what  heroic  stories  were  to  the  courts 
folk-tales  were  to  the  rest  of  the  population. 

In  Norway  court  poetry  flourished  down  to  Christian  times, 
though  in  the  generation  before  the  conversion  it  had  come 
mainly  into  the  hands  of  Icelanders.  But  practically  nothing 
is  known  as  to  the  existence  of  court  poets  in  Denmark  ;  and 
here  we  have,  I  think,  the  explanation  of  the  peculiar  character 
of  the  Danish  sources  used  by  Saxo.  The  old  heroic  poems 
had  been  largely  forgotten,  and  what  remained  was  preserved 
only  in  the  form  of  ballads  and  popular  tales — which  in  some 
cases  practically  amounted  to  folk-tales. 

Lastly,  we  must  note  that  the  existence  of  a  folk-tale  may 
sometimes  be  inferred  when  we  have  no  knowledge  of  it  in 
its  uncontaminated  form.  Such  is  the  case  (e.g.)  when  we 
find  the  same  adventure,  especially  if  it  be  of  a  supernatural 
character,  related  of  several  different  and  unconnected  persons, 
whose  historical  existence  may  be  quite  satisfactorily  authenti- 

^  Ballads  on  heroic  subjects  may  of  course  have  begun  quite  early. 


114  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

cated.  But  such  inferences  must  be  used  with  caution,  for  it  is 
not  necessary  to  suppose  that  supernatural  incidents  in  heroic 
stories  are  always  due  to  the  influence  of  folk-tales.  They  may 
often  truly  reflect  the  belief  of  an  age  which  did  not  clearly 
distinguish  between  natural  and  supernatural.  That  the  super- 
natural is  less  prominent  in  heroic  poetry  than  in  folk-tales  is 
due  doubtless  to  the  fact  that  the  courts  of  that  period  possessed 
a  far  higher  degree  of  culture  than  the  rest  of  the  population. 
The  same  phenomenon  is  still  more  noticeable  in  Welsh 
literature  than  in  Teutonic.  In  the  early  court  poems  the 
supernatural  is  comparatively  little  in  evidence,  whereas  in  the 
Mabinogion,  which  are  largely  made  up  of  folk-tales,  it  is 
developed  to  a  most  astounding  degree. 

Various  kinds  of  supernatural  beings  are  brought  before 
our  notice  in  heroic  stories.  In  the  Northern  versions  the  god 
Othin  is  introduced  not  unfrequently.  Thus,  to  give  a  few 
instances,  the  Volsunga  Saga  brings  him  into  contact  with 
Sigmundr  on  two  occasions  :  first  when  he  enters  Volsungr's 
hall  at  the  wedding  feast  and  plants  in  the  tree  a  sword  which 
Sigmundr  alone  is  able  to  draw  out  (cap.  3),  and  again  in  his 
last  battle  when  the  hero's  sword  is  shattered  at  the  touch  of 
Othin's  javelin  (cap.  ii).  Twice  also  the  same  saga  makes  him 
meet  with  SigurtJr :  first  when  he  chooses  for  him  the  horse 
Grani  (cap.  13),  and  later  when  he  accompanies  him  on  his  way 
to  attack  the  sons  of  Hundingr  (cap.  17;  cf  also  cap.  18).  In 
all  these  cases  alike  the  god's  identity  is  not  suspected,  at  least 
until  after  his  departure.  In  the  poem  Reginsmil,  from  which 
the  last  of  these  incidents  is  taken,  we  find  also  a  story  of  quite 
a  different  character  and  laid  wholly  in  the  realm  of  the  super- 
natural, namely  the  adventures  of  the  gods  Othin,  Hoenir  and 
Loki  with  the  otter  and  the  dwarf  Andvari.  Of  other  divine 
or  semi-divine  beings  we  may  mention  Hli6?5,  the  daughter  of 
Hrimnir  and  adopted  daughter  of  Frigg,  who  became  the  wife 
of  Volsungr  and  mother  of  Sigmundr.  As  a  last  instance 
reference  may  be  made  to  a  passage  from  the  lost  Biarkamdl 
(Saxo,  p.  66),  where  the  hero  suspects  that  Othin  is  present 
among  the  enemy  and  expresses  his  desire  to  attack  him. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  II5 

In  the  German  heroic  poems,  which  are  entirely  Christian, 
we  find  no  mention  of  the  gods.  Note  should  be  taken  however 
of  an  incident  in  the  Rabenschlacht  (v.  964  ff.),  where  Witege 
in  his  flight  from  Dietrich  gallops  into  the  sea  and  is  rescued 
by  the  mermaid  Wachilt.  If  we  were  dealing  with  a  Greek  story 
we  should  regard  this  person  as  a  goddess  without  hesitation. 

In  much  earlier  times  a  very  good  instance  is  furnished  by 
the  legendary  history  of  the  Langobardi.  According  to  the  story 
(cf  p.  9  f )  the  Langobardi,  who  were  then  called  Winniles,  soon 
after  their  emigration  from  Scandinavia  came  into  conflict  with 
the  Vandals.  The  Origo  Gentis  Langobardorum,  an  anonymous 
tract  dating  from  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century,  gives 
the  following  account  of  what  happened  :  Ambri  and  Assi,  the 
leaders  of  the  Vandals,  asked  Wodan  {Godan)  that  he  should 
give  them  victory  over  the  Winniles.  Wodan  replied,  saying : 
"  Whomsoever  I  shall  first  look  upon,  when  the  sun  rises,  to 
them  will  I  give  victory."  Then  Gambara  with  her  two  sons 
Ibor  and  Aio,  who  were  chiefs  over  the  Winniles,  asked  Fria 
{Frea),  the  wife  of  Wodan,  that  she  should  be  gracious  to  the 
Winniles.  Fria  then  gave  counsel  that  the  Winniles  should 
come  when  the  sun  rose  and  that  their  women  should  let  down 
their  hair  about  their  faces  after  the  fashion  of  a  beard  and 
should  come  with  their  husbands.  Then,  as  it  became  light, 
while  the  sun  was  rising,  Fria  turned  the  bed,  on  which  Wodan 
lay,  and  put  his  face  to  the  east  and  wakened  him.  And  he 
looked  and  saw  the  Winniles  and  their  women  with  their  hair 
let  down  about  their  faces  and  said  :  "  Who  are  those  long- 
beards  .''  "  And  Fria  said  to  Wodan  :  "  As  thou  hast  given  them 
a  name,  give  them  also  victory."    And  he  gave  them  victory,  etc. 

Woden  is  mentioned  also  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem  on  the 
magic  herbs,  and  Ing  in  the  Runic  poem.  In  strictly  heroic 
pieces  however  the  only  possible  case  is  the  reference  to  the 
passionate  love  of  Geat  in  the  Elegy  of  Deor  (v.  15)^  Indeed, 
were  it  not  for  the  Langobardic  story  we  might  perhaps  suspect 
that  the  introduction  of  the  gods  in  heroic  poetry  was  a  Scandi- 

'■■  Elsewhere  this  name  occurs  only  in  the  genealogies,  where  it  is  borne  by  an 
ancestor  of  Woden.  It  is  possible  however  that  in  the  Elegy  some  unknown  hero  of 
the  Geatas  may  be  meant  (cf.  Beow.  640,  1785  etc.). 


Il6  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

navian  innovation.  But  as  the  case  stands,  although  this  story 
cannot  properly  be  regarded  as  heroic,  it  is  more  likely  that 
their  non-appearance  in  the  English  heroic  poems  is  due  to 
a  process  of  expurgation  or  elimination.  From  such  passages  as 
Beovv.  175  ff.  we  may  infer  with  probability  that  no  definite 
reference  to  the  gods  would  be  tolerated  after  the  courts  had 
become  Christian  (cf  p.  53  f). 

In  the  poems  which  have  come  down  to  us  the  supernatural 
element  is  represented  chiefly  by  what  we  may  call  monsters. 
This  is  especially  the  case  in  Beowulf,  the  main  part  of  which  is 
devoted  to  encounters  with  such  beings.  We  can  hardly  obtain 
a  better  example  than  the  hero's  adventures  in  the  first  part  of 
the  poem.  But  it  will  be  well  at  the  outset  to  guard  against  the 
assumption  that  the  story  of  Beowulf  was  in  any  way  typical  of 
early  heroic  poetry.  Thus  we  have  no  satisfactory  evidence  that 
either  the  story  of  Waldhere  or  that  of  Finn  contained  super- 
natural elements  of  any  kind,  while  even  in  that  of  Siegfried 
they  are  comparatively  unimportant. 

The  story  of  Beowulf s  adventures  with  the  monsters  seems 
to  be  derived  from  a  folk-tale.  In  the  Icelandic  Grettis  Saga, 
cap.  64 — 66,  the  famous  outlaw  Grettir,  who  died  in  103 1,  is 
credited  with  performing  almost  the  same  exploits  The  re- 
semblance between  the  two  stories  indeed  descends  in  some 
cases  even  to  small  points  of  detail.  These,  as  well  as  the 
points  of  difference,  may  best  be  seen  by  giving  an  analysis  of 
the  two  side  by  side. 

Beowulf  learns  that  King  Hroth-  Grettir  learns  that  Steinvor  has 
gar's  hall  has  been  attacked  by  night  lost  her  husband  and  a  trusted 
for  twelve  years  and  many  of  his  servant  at  two  successive  Christ- 
warriors  carried  off  and  devoured  mases  through  mysterious  nightly 
by  the  monster  Grendel.  He  comes  attacks  on  her  house.  He  comes 
and  offers  his  services.  to  her  and  claims  hospitality  at  the 

third  Christmas. 

He  is  left  in  charge  of  the  hall  at  He  is  left  alone  in  charge  of  the 

night  with  his  fourteen  companions.  hall  at  night. 

Grendel  (a  male  monster)  attacks  He  is  attacked  by  a  huge  female 

the  hall,    devours   one   warrior   and  monster  and  a  desperate   wrestling 

engages    in    a    desperate    wrestling  struggle  takes  place, 
struggle  with  Beowulf. 


VI] 


SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS 


117 


Grendel  finds  Beowulf  too  strong 
and  eventually  escapes,  but  with  the 
loss  of  an  arm  which  Beowulf  tears 
off. 

Grendel's  mother  attacks  the  hall 
and  carries  off  a  Danish  knight. 
Beowulf  goes  to  the  lake  where  the 
monsters  were  believed  to  dwell,  in 
order  to  exact  punishment. 

Beowulf  dives  into  the  lake  and 
is  seized  by  Grendel's  mother  who 
drags  him  into  her  cave,  where  there 
is  a  bright  fire.  Beowulfs  followers 
and  the  Danes  remain  above  on  the 
bank. 

The  monster  overthrows  Beowulf 
and  attacks  him  with  a  dirk  (jseax) ; 
but  he  succeeds  in  chopping  her 
asunder  with  a  huge  sword  which 
he  finds  in  the  cave.  After  slaying 
her  he  comes  upon  the  dead  Grendel 
and  cuts  off  his  head.  He  also  sees 
a  quantity  of  treasure. 

The  lake  is  stained  with  the 
monster's  blood.  All  think  that 
Beowulf  has  perished,  and  the  Danes 
return  home;  but  Beowulf's  followers 
remain  on  the  bank. 


Grettir  is  dragged  out  of  the 
house  to  a  precipice  over  the  river, 
where  he  eventually  succeeds  in 
chopping  off  one  of  the  monsters 
arms.     She  falls  over  the  edge. 

There  is  no  further  attack,  but 
Grettir  determines  to  examine  the 
river  from  curiosity. 


Grettir  dives  off  the  cliff  into  the 
river,  just  below  a  waterfall.  He 
climbs  up  beneath  the  waterfall  and 
finds  a  cave  there  with  a  fire  in  it. 
The  priest  Steinn  waits  for  him  on 
the  cliff. 

Grettir  on  reaching  the  cave  is 
attacked  by  a  huge  male  monster 
armed  with  a  heptisax^.  This  snaps 
at  the  first  thrust ;  and  as  the  monster 
reaches  back  for  a  sword  which  is 
hanging  behind  him,  Grettir  slashes 
him  down  the  front.  Afterwards  he 
finds  the  remains  of  the  two  missing 
men  in  the  cave. 

The  river  is  stained  with  the 
monster's  blood,  and  Steinn,  think- 
ing that  Grettir  has  perished,  leaves 
the  cliff. 


There  can  scarcely  be  any  doubt  that  these  two  stories  are 
connected  in  some  way.  Some  scholars  indeed  hold  that  the 
Icelandic  story  is  derived  from  the  other  ;  but  the  discrepancies 
seem  to  me  to  be  too  great  for  this  to  be  probable.  Moreover 
there  is  another  Scandinavian  story  which  has  to  be  taken  into 
account.  This  is  contained  in  Orms  Thdttr  Storolfssonar^  a 
document  which  dates  from  the  fourteenth  century,  and  also  in 
later  ballads  from  Sweden  and  the  Faroes.     According  to  the 


'  This  word  is  said  to  occur  only  here  and  in  a  following  verse.  From  the 
description  the  weapon  seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  dirk  with  a  long  wooden 
shaft. 

'  Fommanna  Sogur,  ni  p.  lo^S.  (especially  p.  223 ff.). 


Il8  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

Story  Ormr  was  an  Icelander  who  lived  towards  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century.  Like  Beowulf  and  Grettir  he  had  a  reputation 
for  laziness  in  his  youth.  In  his  time  an  island  called  SauSey 
off  the  coast  of  Norway  was  inhabited  by  the  monster  Brusi 
and  his  mother  who  had  the  form  of  a  black  cat.  One  of 
Ormr's  friends,  a  Dane  named  Asbiorn,  lost  his  life  in  an 
attack  upon  them.  Ormr  then  set  out  to  avenge  him.  When 
he  reached  the  monster's  den  the  cat  assailed  him  fiercely  with 
her  claws,  but  he  ultimately  succeeded  in  destroying  her. 
Then  he  had  an  encounter  with  Brusi,  whose  head  he  tore 
open  with  his  hands,  afterwards  cutting  the  '  blood-eagle '  upon 
his  back.  In  the  den  he  found  a  large  amount  of  gold  and 
silver.  The  later  forms  of  the  story  add  several  features  which 
recall  the  adventures  of  Beowulf,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
situation  of  the  den  and  the  cannibalistic  propensities  of  the 
monsters. 

Here  again  we  have  in  all  probability  only  another  form  of 
the  same  story.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  there  is  no  special 
affinity  between  the  two  Scandinavian  versions,  while  the  setting 
and  the  names  of  the  characters  are  entirely  different  in  all  three. 
Yet  if  one  version  was  really  the  source  of  the  others  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  every  trace  of  its  original  connections  could  have 
vanished.  With  far  more  probability  we  may  conclude  that  the 
story  once  existed  independently,  i.e.  in  the  form  of  a  folk-tale, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  possess  an  Icelandic  folk-tale  which 
contains  most  of  the  principal  features,  though  the  hero  has  been 
split  up  into  five  brothers^  In  its  original  form  the  tale  was 
probably  only  a  specialised  variety  of  the  type  familiar  to  us 
through  Jack  the  Giant-killer.  Stories  of  this  kind  seem  to 
have  been  particularly  popular  in  Norway — a  fact  due  perhaps 
in  part  to  the  survival  of  isolated  savage  communities  among 
whom  cannibalism  may  not  have  been  entirely  unknown ^  We 
meet  with  them  sometimes  in  quite  unexpected  places.  Thus 
in  the  account  of  Th6roddr  Snorrason's  mission  to  Jemtland  in 

^  Cf.  Brandl,  Grundriss  d.  germ.  Philol.'^,  II  p.  993  f.  The  following  pages 
(995  f.)  contain  an  admirable  summary  of  the  whole  question. 

''■  Cf.  Hansen,  Landnam  i  Norge,  p.  160.  For  stories  of  monsters  which  suggest 
savages,  cf.  Ketils  S.  Haengs,  cap.  2  f. ,  and  Grims  S.  LotSinkinna,  cap.  i. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  I  I9 

St  Olafs  Saga  (Heimskr,),  cap.  151,  we  find  a  graphic  and 
circumstantial  story  of  a  female  monster  who  killed  and 
devoured  eleven  merchants  in  the  inn  where  the  envoy  was 
resting.  Thor  too,  the  chief  Norwegian  deity,  came  to  be 
regarded  essentially  as  a  giant-killer,  his  origin  in  the  thunder 
being  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  forgotten. 

It  is  no  serious  objection  to  our  view  that  Grettir  seems  to 
be  a  perfectly  historical  character ;  for  no  one  will  contend  that 
the  story  of  his  doings  at  Sandhaugar  is  true,  any  more  than 
a  number  of  other  exploits  with  which  he  is  credited.  The 
same  remark  applies  to  the  story  of  Thoroddr,  whose  father, 
the  magistrate  Snorri  (Grettir's  contemporary),  was  perhaps  the 
best  known  and  most  influential  man  in  Iceland.  We  have  seen 
that  in  the  true  folk-tale  the  hero  is  nameless  ;  but  his  adven- 
tures are  liable  to  become  linked  with  the  names  of  historical 
characters — just  as  in  our  own  day  everyone  knows  of  remark- 
able persons  who  have  had  associated  with  them  stories  which 
really  were  in  existence  before  their  time.  In  Grettir's  case 
exceptionally  favourable  conditions  for  such  association  were 
provided  by  the  man's  great  strength,  by  the  unruly  disposition 
which  he  showed  from  his  childhood  and  by  the  many  thrilling 
adventures  which  he  doubtless  did  experience  during  his  long 
outlawry.  Indeed,  though  the  saga  in  its  present  form  was  not 
composed  until  nearly  three  centuries  after  his  time,  we  might 
naturally  expect  that  many  untrue  stories  about  such  a  person 
would  be  in  circulation  even  before  his  death. 

Just  as  the  folk-tale  became  attached  to  the  historical  Grettir, 
so  it  may  have  been  associated  with  another  person  in  earlier 
times.  Now  the  only  character  in  Northern  tradition  who  has 
been  identified  with  Beowulf  is  a  certain  BoSvarr  Biarki,  a 
warrior  in  the  service  of  Hrolfr  Kraki.  The  identification  is 
denied  by  many  scholars,  but  there  are  two  points  in  the  story 
of  Biarki  which  seem  to  me  to  lend  great  probability  to  it.  In 
the  first  place  as  Beowulf  goes  from  the  land  of  the  Geatas 
(Gautar),  where  his  uncle  is  king,  to  the  court  of  the  Danish 
king  Hrothgar,  so  Biarki  goes  from  the  land  of  the  Gautar, 
where  his  brother  is  king,  to  the  court  of  Hr61fr  Kraki,  i.e. 
Hrothwulf,    Hrothgar's    nephew  and    colleague.      Secondly,  at 


I20  SUPERNATURAL    ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

a  later  time  Biarki,  like  Beowulf,  assists  the  Swedish  prince 
AtSils  (Eadgils)  in  his  victorious  campaign  against  Ali  (Onela), 
though  he  is  represented  not  as  king  of  the  Gautar  but  as  Hr61fr 
Kraki's  emissary. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  true  that  no  resemblance  to  the  story 
of  Beowulf  is  shown  by  the  Scandinavian  accounts  of  Biarki's 
origin  and  death.  In  Hr61fs  Saga  Kraka',  which  dates  only 
from  the  fourteenth  century,  Biarki  is  said  to  have  been  born 
in  Norway.  His  father  was  called  Biorn  ('  bear')  and  his  mother 
Bera  ('she-bear').  The  former  indeed  was  actually  turned  into 
a  bear  by  witchcraft.  Further,  from  the  time  of  his  arrival  in 
Denmark  Biarki  remained  in  the  service  of  Hrolfr  till  the  end 
and  lost  his  life  in  the  final  attack  made  upon  that  king.  A 
reminiscence  of  his  ursine  antecedents  appears  in  the  last  scene. 
When  the  enemy  are  attacking  the  king's  hall  Biarki  cannot  be 
roused  out  of  slumber,  but  a  huge  bear  (the  warrior's  spirit)  is 
seen  fighting  among  the  king's  knights. 

Saxo  says  nothing  about  Biarki's  origin  and  it  may  be  that 
the  story  given  in  the  saga  was  unknown  in  his  time.  At  all 
events  it  is  doubtless  derived  from  a  folk-tale.  In  the  twelfth 
century  Vita  et  Passio  Waldevi^  almost  the  same  story  is  told 
of  the  father  of  Siward,  the  famous  earl  of  Northumbria,  who 
died  in  1055,  while  a  further  parallel  is  to  be  found  in  the 
De  Gestis  Herwardi  Saxonis^  another  work  of  the  same  period. 
Both  stories  contain  indications  of  Scandinavian  origin  and  we 
can  hardly  doubt  that  the  motif  was  a  popular  one  in  the  folk- 
tales of  the  North.  Indeed  for  the  version  of  the  story  found 
in    Hrolfs   Saga,  transformation   into  animal  form   through  the 

^  A  somewhat  similar  account  of  Biarki's  origin  is  given  in  the  (fifteenth  century) 
Biarkarimur. 

^  TraduHt  relacioties  antiquortini  quod  uir  quidam  nobilis,  quern  Dofninus  permisit, 
contra  solitum  ordinem  humane  propas^nis,  ex  quodani  alba  urso  patre,  muliere  generosa 
matre,  procreari,  Ursus  genuit  Spratlingutn  ;  Spratlingus  Ulsium ;  Ulsius  Beorn, 
cognomento  Beresune,  hoc  est  filius  ursi.  Hie  Beorn  Dacus  fuit  natione,  comes 
egregius  et  miles  illustris.  In  signum  autem  illius  diversitatis  speciei  ex  parte  generan- 
tium  produxerat  ei  natura  patemas  auriculas,  sive  ursi  etc.  Michel,  Chroniques 
Anglo-normattdes,   p.    104. 

'  Ilium  maximum  ursum cuius  pater  in  silvis  fertur  puellatn  rapuisse  et  ex  ea 

Biernum  regem  Norweye  genuisse.  ib.  p-  7  f.  A  similar  story  is  told  by  Saxo  (p.  345  f.) 
of  the  ancestry  of  Svend  Estrithson. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  121 

agency  of  a  wicked  stepmother,  analogies  are  to  be  found  in 
many  parts  of  the  world. 

In  his  account  of  the  last  fight  Saxo  quotes  at  great  length 
from  the  lost  Biarkamal ;  but  here  again  no  reference  is  made  to 
the  bear  motifs  We  may  note  however  that  in  this  version  no 
explanation  is  given  of  Biarki's  behaviour  in  refusing  to  rise 
from  his  bed  in  response  to  the  exhortations  of  his  colleague^ 
It  is  scarcely  safe  therefore,  I  think,  to  assume  that  Saxo's 
account — apart  from  the  quotations  which  consist  entirely  of 
speeches — necessarily  represents  an  earlier  form  of  the  story 
than  that  given  in  the  saga  ;  for  in  the  latter  Biarki's  conduct 
is  quite  satisfactorily  explained.  There  is  surely  at  least  as 
much  to  be  said  for  supposing  that  the  incident  of  the  bear — 
or  something  which  gave  rise  to  it — has  been  ignored  or  for- 
gotten by  Saxo. 

Now  Beowulf  is  represented  as  an  enormously  strong  man, 
but  his  strength  is  not  altogether  of  a  natural  order.  We  are 
told  that  he  was  fated  not  to  gain  victory  with  the  sword.  It  is 
not  only  the  struggle  with  Grendel  which  he  wins  by  wrestling  ; 
in  V.  2506  f.  we  hear  that  he  hugged  or  crushed  to  death  the 
Frisian  champion  Daeghrefn — a  method  of  warfare  appropriate 
to  a  bear  rather  than  to  a  man.  The  explanation  is  perhaps 
to  be  found  in  the  curious  phenomenon  called  berserksgangr^, 
which  is  so  frequently  mentioned  in  sagas  and  even  in  legal 
works.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  popular  belief  this  form 
of  madness  was  connected  with  the  werwolf  idea,  of  which  the 
bear  form  was  a  common  variety.  The  transition  therefore  to 
the  story  found  in  Hrolfs  Saga  is  nothing  very  strange. 

In  conclusion  mention  must  be  made  of  an  incident  which 

^  Yet  Hialti's  third  speech  (p.  61)  contains  the  words  igtte  ursos  ar cere  licet,  the 
significance  of  which  is  obscure.  It  is  curious,  as  Prof.  Olrik  {Danmarks  Heltedigtning, 
p.  51)  has  pointed  out,  that  Hrolfs  Saga  (cap.  33)  refers  to  bears  in  a  corresponding 
place,  though  the  context  is  quite  different. 

2  Prof.  Olrik  [op.  cit.,  p.  45)  says  that  Biarki's  sleep  is  certainly  of  a  super- 
natural character  and  suggests  that  it  is  due  to  magical  arts  on  the  part  of  the 
enemy. 

'  Cf.  especially  Yngl.  S.  6  :  Othin's  men  went  to  battle  without  mail-coats  and 
were  frenzied  like  dogs  or  wolves.  They  bit  into  their  shields  and  were  as  strong  as 
bears  or  bulls.  They  made  slaughter  of  other  men  ;  but  neither  fire  nor  iron  took 
effect  upon  them.     This  is  called  berserksgangr. 


122  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

has  been  brought  into  connection  with  the  fight  between 
Beowulf  and  Grendel.  In  Hr61fs  Saga,  cap.  23,  it  is  stated 
that  shortly  after  his  arrival  at  the  Danish  court  Biarki 
encountered  and  slew  an  animal  demon  which  at  two  successive 
Yules  had  ravaged  the  live-stock  in  the  king's  farm.  Saxo 
alludes  clearly  to  the  same  story  when  he  states  that  Biarki 
won  great  fame  by  killing  a  huge  bear'.  Now  it  should  be 
observed  that  the  representation  of  Grendel  is  by  no  means 
clearly  anthropomorphic,  though  the  human  element  is  much 
more  apparent  in  the  cave  scene.  The  various  accounts  may, 
I  think,  be  satisfactorily  reconciled  on  the  hypothesis  that  in 
the  original  story  the  hero  killed  a  monster  or  demon  {iotunn) 
in  the  form  of  a  bear  {biarnar  hamr).  In  England  this  story 
must  have  been  expanded  and  modified  by  the  influence  of  the 
folk-tale  of  the  two  cannibal  monsters  which  we  have  discussed 
above.  In  Scandinavian  tradition  however  no  such  intrusion 
took  place,  though  a  totally  different  folk-tale  became  attached 
to  the  early  history  of  the  same  hero. 

Two  adventures  with  dragons  are  recorded  in  Beowulf.  The 
first,  that  of  Sigemund,  is  related  quite  briefly  (vv.  884 — 900), 
but  the  second  forms  the  subject  of  the  latter  part  of  the  poem. 
The  Older  Edda  (Fafnismal),  followed  by  the  prose  Edda  and 
Volsunga  Saga,  gives  an  account  of  the  killing  of  Fafnir  by 
Sigur?5r ;  and  in  the  late  Seyfridslied  two  adventures  of  the 
same  kind  are  narrated  in  connection  with  the  same  hero. 
Dragons  figure  also  occasionally  in  the  German  epics,  especially 
in  the  story  of  Wolfdietrich.  Here  too  we  must  mention  Saxo's 
accounts  of  the  dragons  slain  by  the  Danish  kings  Frotho  I  and 
Fridleuus  II.  The  two  stories  are  almost  identical,  but  the 
former  (p.  38)  contains  a  description  of  the  dragon  and  of  the 
means  to  be  used  in  attacking  him,  which  is  given  in  Latin  verse 
and  may  very  well  be  derived  from  an  old  poem. 

There  are  certain  resemblances  between  Saxo's  stories  and 
the    great   dragon    fight   in    Beowulf,   and    many   scholars   are 

'  The  identity  of  the  two  stories  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  both  cases  Hialti  is 
made  to  drink  the  creature's  blood — a  custom  known  in  Norway  in  comparatively 
recent  times  (cf.  Olrik,  op.  cit.,  p.  ii8).  The  Biarkarimur  tell  of  two  encounters,  the 
first  with  a  she-wolf,  the  second  between  Hialti  and  a  bear. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  123 

inclined  to  the  view  that  they  have  a  common  origin.  The 
former  however  in  both  cases  ended  successfully.  Moreover 
in  two  points  at  least  they  agree  rather  with  the  adventure 
ascribed  to  Sigemund  in  Beowulf,  namely  (i)  that  the  hero 
attacks  and  kills  the  dragon  alone  and  (ii)  that  he  carries  away 
the  treasure  in  a  boat.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  generally  agreed 
that  the  stories  of  Sigemund  and  SigurSr  must  be  connected, 
though  opinion  is  divided  as  to  whether  the  adventure  was  first 
ascribed  to  the  father  or  the  son.  Beowulf  is  at  all  events  by 
far  the  earliest  of  the  authorities.  Against  this  stands  the  fact 
that  both  Scandinavian  and  German  tradition  names  SigurSr 
(Siegfried)  as  the  hero.  But  this  argument  could  have  weight 
only  if  there  was  reason  for  thinking  that  the  story  was  known 
in  the  North  before  the  composition  of  Beowulf 

Fafnir  is  called  dreki  in  Volsunga  Saga,  but  he  seems  always 
to  be  represented  rather  as  a  reptile  than  a  dragon.  It  is  not 
at  all  clear  that  he  is  a  being  of  the  same  kind  as  the  dragon 
encountered  by  Beowulf,  which  is  said  to  fly  and  breathe  fire. 
This  is  perhaps  to  be  noticed,  since  the  flying  dragon  is  also 
known  in  the  North  ;  we  find  it  mentioned  even  in  old  poems 
such  as  Voluspa.  The  description  of  Sigemund's  dragon  is  too 
brief  to  enable  us  to  determine  its  character.  It  is  once  called 
draca  and  thrice  wyrm. ;  but  the  latter  word  is  used  also  of  the 
flying  dragon.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  not  certain  that  the 
word  draca  always  denotes  a  supernatural  being.  The  saedracan 
and  niceras  mentioned  in  Beowulf  1425  ff.  would  seem  frofn  the 
description  to  be  animals  of  the  seal-class. 

One  feature  however  is  common  to  all  the  English  and 
Northern  dragons,  namely  that  they  are  represented  as  guarding 
hoards  of  gold.  In  the  North  this  idea  must  have  been  very 
widespread,  since  expressions  such  as  '  bed  of  the  dragon ' 
(or  'snake')  are  among  the  commonest  terms  for  gold  in  Old 
Norse  poetry.  In  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  also  it  is  generally 
recognised  ^ 

It  has  been  mentioned  above  that  many  scholars  connect  the 
story  of  Beowulf's  dragon-fight  with  that  related  of  Frotho  I  by 
Saxo.     To  me  the  affinities  of  the  latter  seem  rather  to  lie  with 

^  Cf.  the  Cott.  Gnomic  Verses,  26  f. :  draca  sceal  on  hlanve  frod fraetivum  wlanc. 


124  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

Sigemund's  dragon ;  but  the  truth  may  be  that  for  adventures  of 
this  kind  there  was  a  standard  poetic  description  which  could 
be  applied  to  any  number  of  cases.  More  important  perhaps 
is  the  fact  that  genealogically  Saxo's  Frotho  I  corresponds  to 
Beowulf  the  son  of  Scyld^  In  common  with  practically  all 
Scandinavian  genealogical  texts  Saxo  has  the  series  Frotho^ 
— Haldanus — Ro  (Hroarr)  and  Helgo  corresponding  to  the 
Beowulf — Healfdene — Hrothgar  and  Halga  of  the  poem*. 
Quite  possibly  therefore  it  is  not  without  significance  that  this 
person  is  credited  with  having  killed  a  dragon. 

We  have  seen  that  the  two  stories  differ  essentially  in  regard 
to  the  outcome  of  the  adventure.  Frotho's  death  is  recorded  by 
Saxo  in  quite  a  different  connection  and  apparently  long  after- 
wards. But  here  we  may  turn  to  the  story  of  the  other  Frotho, 
Saxo's  Frotho  III  (the  Peaceful),  for  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  two  characters  were  originally  identical.  According  to 
Saxo  this  latter  king  was  killed  in  his  old  age  by  a  sorceress 
who  had  taken  the  form  of  a  '  sea-cow '  {maritiinia  bos),  though 
the  author  does  not  make  clear  what  kind  of  creature  he  means 
by  that  term.  It  is  at  least  a  question  whether  this  story  does 
not  belong  to  the  same  class  as  the  others  ;  for  whatever  differ- 
ences there  may  be  in  other  respects  between  a  'sea-cow'  and 
a  dragon,  it  may  be  observed  that  nearly  all  the  dragons  of 
Northern  legends  make  their  home  by  the  sea. 

If  there  is  a  connection  between  the  two  stories — the  dragon- 
fight  of  Frotho  I  and  the  death  of  Frotho  III — their  origin  must 
surely  be  sought  in  myth.     FrotSi  the  Peaceful  (Frotho  III)  is 

^  It  is  generally  held  that  this  person's  original  name  was  Beowa  or  Beaw.  The 
latter  is  the  form  given  in  the  genealogy  in  the  Chronicle  {ad  ann.  855)  ;  but  in  view 
of  the  many  corruptions  which  this  genealogy  has  suffered  it  may  very  well  be  due  to 
a  scribal  error  for  Beowa.  This  again  may  be  a  hypocoristic  form  for  Beowulf,  though 
on  the  other  hand  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  name  of  the  son  of  Scyld  has 
been  assimilated  to  that  of  the  hero  of  the  poem.  But  in  any  case  there  does  not 
seem  to  be  any  adequate  ground  for  the  commonly  accepted  view  that  the  adventure 
with  Grendel  originally  belonged  to  this  person. 

^  In  Skioldunga  Saga,  Langfe"5gatal  etc.  Halfdan's  father  is  not  Fri'SfroISi  (Saxo's 
Frotho  I)  but  Fr6"5i  hinn  froekni  (Saxo's  Frotho  IV),  the  Froda  of  Beowulf. 

^  As  regards  Frotho's  parentage — Saxo  makes  him  son  of  Hadingus,  son  of  Gram, 
son  of  Scioldus.  In  Skioldunga  Saga,  LangfetSgatal  etc.  Fri"Sfr6"Si  is  son  of  Fri'Sleifr, 
son  of  Skioldr  ;  while  Fro'Si  hinn  froekni  is  son  of  Fri^leifr,  son  of  Danr. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  1 25 

the  central  figure  of  Danish  legend  and  his  fame  became 
proverbial  even  in  Germany.  Moreover,  though  there  is  no 
evidence  that  he  was  regarded  as  a  god,  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
the  Danish  counterpart  of  the  god  Frey. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  cite  one  more  of  Saxo's 
stories  (p.  29  f ).  Hadingus,  the  father  of  Frotho  I,  while 
bathing  in  the  sea  off  the  coast  of  Helsingland  encountered 
and  killed  a  sea-monster  of  unknown  species.  As  he  was 
having  it  carried  to  his  camp  he  met  a  woman  who  uttered 
a  prophecy  of  dire  woe,  saying  that  he  had  killed  one  of  the 
deities  who  was  wandering  about  in  a  form  not  his  own^  In 
order  to  propitiate  the  gods  he  instituted  a  sacrifice  to  Frey, 
which  was  to  be  repeated  at  regular  intervals  and  which  the 
Swedes  call  Froblod.  This  story  seems  to  take  us  back  to  the 
days  of  theriomorphic  religion — or  perhaps  one  should  say  to 
a  time  when  certain  marine  animals  were  regarded  as  divine. 
But  is  it  not  also  connected  somehow  with  the  story  of  Frotho's 
death  .? 

We  need  not  enter  here  into  a  discussion  of  these  mythical 
stories,  though  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  therio- 
morphism  plays  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  religious  practices 
and  conceptions  of  primitive  peoples,  and,  what  is  more,  that 
we  hear  not  unfrequently  of  a  struggle  between  a  god  or 
national  hero  and  some  theriomorphic  being  whose  sanctuary 
or  attributes  he  appears  to  have  taken  over^.  But  it  is  perhaps 
worth  noting  that  in  Beowulf  also  the  hero  is  repeatedly  involved 
in  adventures  with  water-monsters.  This  feature  is  entirely 
absent  from  the  story  of  Biarki  and  can  hardly  have  a  historical 

^  Tantum  pene  uis  celica  pensat. 

quippe  unum  e  siiperis  alieno  corpore  tectum 

sacrilege  necuere  manus :   sic  nutninis  alnii 

interfector  ades. 
2  We  may  compare  the  case  of  Apollo  and  the  Python  at  Delphi,  and  possibly  the 
story  of  Thor  (Mi'Sgar'Ss  veurr)  and  Mi'Sgar'Ssormr.  Note  should  also  be  taken  of  the 
existence  of  a  local  tradition — going  back  apparently  to  the  Middle  Ages — to  the  effect 
that  the  Isefjord  was  formerly  haunted  by  a  monster  which  demanded  a  human  victim 
from  every  ship  that  passed.  It  was  finally  expelled  by  the  arrival  of  the  relics  of 
St  Lucius,  to  whom  Roeskilde  cathedral  is  dedicated  (cf.  Sarrazin,  Beowulf- Studien, 
p.  10  ff.).  The  traditional  burial-place  of  Fro'Si  the  Peaceful  is  on  the  shore  of  the 
Roeskilde  Fjord  ;  but  the  two  fjords  have  a  common  entrance. 


126  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

basis.  What  I  would  suggest  is  that  it  is  derived,  in  part  at 
least,  from  the  same  group  of  legends  which  in  Danish  tradition 
are  centred  round  the  names  Hadingus  and  Frotho.  But  in 
that  case  there  is  considerable  probability  that  these  stories 
have  been  transferred  to  the  hero  from  his  namesake,  the  son 
of  Scyld,  who  belongs  genealogically  to  the  same  group  of 
persons. 

This  explanation  will  at  all  events  account  for  the  discrepancy 
between  the  English  and  Scandinavian  accounts  of  the  hero's 
death'.  Only  the  latter  properly  comes  into  consideration  for 
Beowulf  the  son  of  Ecgtheow.  For  the  suggested  transference 
we  have  a  certain  analogy  in  the  various  incidents  which  are 
connected  sometimes  with  one  Frotho,  sometimes  with  the  other. 
A  much  better  case  however  occurs  in  an  English  work  of  later 
date,  the  Vitae  Duorum  Offarum.  In  that  work  Drida,  the  wife 
of  Offa  II  (the  Mercian  king),  is  represented  as  a  most  desperate 
character,  and  incidents  are  related  of  her  which  seem  to  be 
totally  incompatible  with  what  we  know  of  this  queen — whose 
real  name  was  Cynethryth — from  contemporary  sources.  On 
the  other  hand  they  agree  very  well  with  the  brief  account  given 
in  Beowulf  of  Thrytho  the  wife  of  Offa  I  (king  of  Angel).  We 
may  compare  too  the  hopeless  confusion  which  prevails  in  the 
chronicles  with  regard  to  Anlaf  the  son  of  Sihtric  (Olafr  Kvaran) 
and  Anlaf  the  son  of  Guthfrith.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
heroic  poetry  was  liable  to  mistakes  of  the  same  character, 
although  the  question  has  scarcely  received  as  much  attention 
as  it  deserves. 

In  the  explanation  put  forward  above  I  do  not  mean  of 
course  to  suggest  that  the  dragon  of  northern  heroic  poetry  is 
always  a  distorted  form  of  some  marine  animal.  My  view  is 
that  this  is  one  of  the  elements  which  have  contributed  to  the 

^  It  does  not  of  course  remove  all  difficulties.  The  chief  of  these  perhaps  is  the 
presence  of  VViglaf,  who  seems  clearly  to  belong  to  Beowulf,  the  son  of  Ecgtheow. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  names  Beowulf  and  FrotSi  is  of  minor  account,  since  the 
latter  may  very  well  have  originated  in  a  title  (cf.  Beow.  v.  2928).  On  the  other  hand 
if  this  person  is  really  a  mythical  national  hero  the  name  Beowa  (perhaps  for  an  earlier 
form  Biowi)  would  seem  more  natural  than  Beowulf.  Yet  there  may  have  been 
intermediate  stages  between  the  original  hero  and  the  person  finally  credited  with 
the  exploit. 


VI]  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  1 27 

formation  of  the  stories — playing  a  part  similar  to  that  of  the 
crocodile  in  the  legends  of  southern  lands^  Dragons  endowed 
with  supernatural  or  at  least  unnatural  characteristics  figure  in 
the  folk-tales  of  many  nations  throughout  the  world  ;  and  such 
stories  are  by  no  means  restricted  to  maritime  populations. 
Very  frequently  no  doubt  they  are  handed  on  from  one  people 
to  another,  and  their  currency  is  perhaps  assisted  by  works  of 
art.  We  have  to  remember  that  the  word  draca  is  derived 
from  Latin.  Yet  the  conception  itself  is  probably  much  older  ; 
at  all  events  the  association  of  such  monsters  with  hoards  of 
gold  can  be  traced  back  in  northern  regions  to  a  very  remote 
antiquity*. 

As  regards  the  origin  of  this  association — which  is  clearly 
unnatural  and  not  due  in  any  way  to  the  influence  of  marine 
animals — it  may  be  noted  that  the  dragon's  lair  is  often  a  tomb 
or  barrow^,  as  in  the  case  of  the  one  encountered  by  Beowulf. 
An  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  seems  to  be  afforded  by 
a  story  relating  to  the  tomb  of  Charles  Martel,  which  is  found 
in  a  number  of  medieval  chronicles.  St  Eucherius,  bishop  of 
Orleans,  in  a  vision  saw  Charles  in  hell,  and  on  coming  to 
himself  begged  St  Boniface  and  others  to  go  and  inspect  the 
prince's  burial  place.  On  opening  the  tomb  they  saw  a  dragon 
dart  out  suddenly  and  found  the  grave  all  blackened  as  though 
it  had  been  burnt  up.  Here  it  would  seem  that  the  dragon — a 
fiery  dragon,  like  the  one  in  Beowulf — was  nothing  else  than  the 
spirit  of  the  dead  prince,  and  it  is  permissible  to  suspect  that 
such  was  the  case  elsewhere.  At  all  events  the  fact  that  dragons 
are  represented  as  inhabiting  tombs  is  clearly  to  be  taken  in 
connection  with  their  character  as  guardians  of  gold  ;  for  in  early 
times  it  was  customary  to  bury  with  the  dead  a  considerable 
amount  of  treasure. 

But  there  is  another  feature  which  deserves  notice  in  the 

'  Thus  upon  some  of  these  legends  a  good  deal  of  light  seems  to  be  thrown  by 
certain  usages  cited  by  Mr  Frazer  in  his  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Kingship, 
p.  180. 

*  Herodotus  (ill  1 16,  iv  13,  27)  speaks  of  a  region  in  the  extreme  north  of  Europe 
or  Asia  which  was  said  to  be  inhabited  by  gold-guarding  griffins  (x/)«<ro^i)Xa/ces  7pi/7res, 
cf.  goldweard,  Beow.  3082). 

*  Cf.  the  reference  to  the  Gnomic  verses  quoted  on  p.  123,  note. 


128  SUPERNATURAL    ELEMENTS  [CHAP. 

Story  of  Charles  Martel's  grave.  The  earliest  document^  in 
which  it  is  found  dates  from  the  year  858,  i.e.  about  a  century 
after  the  incident  is  said  to  have  taken  place.  But  the  closing 
words  of  the  account^  state  quite  definitely  that  the  writer  or 
writers  had  known  persons  who  were  present  at  the  opening  of 
the  tomb.  We  have  thus  to  deal  with  evidence  which  is  strictly 
second-hand,  as  in  the  case  of  more  than  one  remarkable  story 
told  by  Bede.  The  explanation  lies  no  doubt  in  the  fact  that 
the  men  of  that  age  did  not  clearly  distinguish  between  the 
supernatural  and  that  which  is  merely  unusual.  At  such  a  time 
if  a  person  asserted  that  he  had  seen  a  fiery  dragon,  his  state- 
ment would  be  received  doubtless  with  wonder  but  not  neces- 
sarily with  incredulity.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  find  it  stated  in 
the  Saxon  Chronicle^  sub  anno  793,  that  in  that  year  fiery 
dragons  were  seen  flying  in  the  air.  It  cannot  therefore  be 
assumed  with  safety  either  that  the  killer  of  a  dragon  must  be  a 
fictitious  person  or  that  the  adventure  itself  must  have  been 
invented  long  after  the  hero's  time. 

In  conclusion  we  have  to  take  account  of  supernatural 
properties  possessed  by  beings  which  in  themselves  are  natural. 
As  an  instance  we  may  take  the  speeches  of  the  birds  (nut- 
hatches) which  in  Fafnismil  32  ff.  warn  SigurtSr  of  the  treachery 
prepared  for  him  by  Reginn.  Similar  stories  occur  elsewhere  in 
Old  Norse  literature.  Absurd  as  this  belief  may  seem  we  have 
good  contemporary  evidence  for  its  existence  in  Procopius' 
account  of  the  Warni,  which  we  discussed  in  the  last  chapter 
(p.  97  f.). 

Under  the  same  head  may  be  mentioned  the  faculty  ascribed 

>to  various  persons  of  being  able  to  change  into  wolves  or  bears. 

As    instances   we    may    mention    the    case    of    Sigmundr   and 

Sinfiotli  given  in  Volsunga  Saga,  cap.  8,  and  the  story  of  Biarki 

1  Epistola  Synodi  Carisiacensis  ad  Hludowicum  regem  Germaniae  directa  (Mon. 
Germ.,  Legum  Sect,  ii,  Capit.  Reg.  Franc,  Tom.  ii,  p.  432  f.). 

"^  nos  autem  illos  uidimus  qui  usque  ad  nostram  aetatem  Jurauerunt,  qui  huic  rei 
interfuerunt  et  nobis  uiiia  uoce  ueraciter  sunt  testati  quae  audierunt  atque  uiderunt. 

2  Texts  D,  E,  F.  This  entry  seems  to  come  from  the  Northumbrian  Gesta,  which 
were  probably  composed  not  very  long  afterwards.  The  last  entry  which  we  cun  trace 
is  for  the  year  806. 


VlJ  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  1 29 

discussed  above.  For  the  latter  we  have  already  suggested  an 
explanation.  But  though  the  motif  may  not  have  been  a 
common  one  in  heroic  poetry — as  compared  with  sagas  relating 
to  the  Viking  Age — there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  belief  in 
shape-changing  goes  back  to  a  remote  antiquity.  It  is  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  poems  and  stories  dealing  with  the  gods, 
while  similar  ideas  are  widely  prevalent  among  primitive  peoples 
at  the  present  day. 

Among  other  supernatural  characteristics  may  be  mentioned 
that  of  invulnerability,  through  the  use  of  magic  which  rendered 
all  weapons  harmless — a  feature  found  in  Beowulf  (in  the  case  of 
Grendel)  as  well  as  in  later  works.  Often  too  heroes  are  capable 
of  superhuman  powers  of  strength  or  endurance,  as  in  Beow. 
377  ff.,  544  ff.^  though  many  of  these  cases  may  be  set  down  to 
mere  exaggeration.  On  the  whole  however  such  characteristics 
are  scarcely  as  prominent  as  they  are  in  the  heroic  stories  of 
other  nations. 

The  love  of  the  marvellous  is  more  strikingly  displayed  in 
Procopius'  account  of  Britain  {Goth.  IV  20)  than  in  any  of  the 
poems  which  have  come  down  to  us.  In  the  first  place  he  says 
that  the  whole  country  beyond  the  great  wall  (i.e.  the  Roman 
Wall)  was  inhabited  only  by  snakes  and  wild  beasts,  and  that  if 
any  man  ventured  there  he  would  die  at  once  from  the  pesti- 
lential atmosphere.  Then  he  goes  on  to  say  that  Britain  was 
the  dwelling  place  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  describes  in 
detail  how  certain  people  who  dwelt  on  the  Frankish  coast 
ferried  the  souls  across.  As  to  the  truth  of  this  story  Procopius 
himself  expresses  scepticism ;  yet  he  states  that  he  had  heard  it 
from  numerous  witnesses.  It  is  scarcely  permissible  therefore 
to  suppose  that  he  had  been  victimised  by  a  humorist.  More 
probably  he  is  reporting  stories  actually  current  among  the 
Teutonic  soldiery  in  the  Roman  army,  which  doubtless  contained 
adventurers  from  many  distant  lands.     In  short  we  have  here  to 

^  A  curious  light  on  the  enormous  strength  ascribed  to  Beowulf  is  thrown  by 
a  passage  in  the  Liber  Monstrorum  (cf.  p.  24).  It  is  there  stated  that  Hygelac 
(Beowulf's  uncle)  was  of  such  immense  size  that  no  horse  could  carry  him 
after  he  reached  the  age  of  twelve.  His  bones  were  shown  as  a  marvel 
to  visitors. 


130  SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS  [CHAP.  VI 

do  with  folk-tales^  which  had  been  localised  in  Britain  and  were 
believed  to  represent  its  condition  truly  at  the  very  time  when 
Procopius  was  writing.  It  is  exceedingly  remarkable  that  such 
stories  should  obtain  credence  at  a  time  when,  as  we  know  from 
more  than  one  source,  there  was  quite  a  considerable  amount  of 
communication  between  Britain  and  the  Continent.  Indeed 
Procopius  himself  says  that  large  numbers  of  English  emigrants 
had  recently  settled  within  the  Prankish  dominions. 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  seen  that  many  of  the 
heroic  stories  contain  elements  derived  from  myth  and  folk-tale. 
The  distinction  which  we  have  drawn  between  the  two  categories 
is  that  only  the  former  deals  with  definite — though  unhistorical — 
personalities^  It  is  commonly  held  that  myth  is  a  necessary 
element  in  heroic  stories  ;  but  this  is  a  question  which  we  must 
reserve  for  discussion  in  the  next  chapter.  Further,  we  have  seen 
that  the  presence  of  supernatural  elements  does  not  necessarily 
mean  that  the  stories  in  which  they  occur  were  composed  or 
modified  long  after  the  events  which  they  relate  ;  that,  on  the 
contrary,  such  elements  are  to  be  found  in  contemporary  or 
almost  contemporary  narratives.  They  must  be  taken  as  faithful 
reflections  of  the  beliefs  and  ideas  of  an  uncritical  age.  But  it 
is  scarcely  correct  to  regard  these  elements  as  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  heroic  poetry.  Their  chief  domain  in  reality 
is  the  folk-tale,  a  far  more  primitive  form  of  composition,  which 
without  doubt  was  in  existence  during  the  same  period.  The 
truly  distinctive  characteristics  of  heroic  poetry  are  rather  those 
which  differentiate  it  from  the  folk-tale. 

^  The  folk- tale  represented  by  the  second  story  may  of  course  be  derived  ulti- 
mately from  some  ancient  custom ;   cf.  Beow.  26 — 52. 

^  Not,  of  course,  personalities  consciously  invented  by  an  individual  brain  ;  these 
must  be  classed  under  fiction.  On  the  other  hand  myth  must  be  held  to  include  per- 
sonifications of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  natural  phenomena — as  (e.g.)  in  Gylfaginning, 
cap.  10 ff.  (from  VaO'ru'Snismal,  etc.),  and  certain  Lithuanian  folk-songs  ('Uainos') — 
in  so  far  at  least  as  such  personifications  are  of  popular  origin. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN   THE    HEROIC    POEMS. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  question  whether  myth  is  a 
necessary  element  in  the  formation  of  heroic  poetry.  It  has 
been  noticed  that  historical  persons  figure  in  many  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age,  while  others  do  not  contain  a  single  character  whose 
historical  existence  can  be  authenticated.  These  latter  stories 
are  believed  to  be  wholly  mythical  in  origin,  though  they  may 
not  show  any  supernatural  features  in  their  final  form.  But 
even  in  stories  of  the  former  type  it  is  held  that  some  of  the 
characters  are  almost  always  of  mythical  origin,  and  that  their 
association  with  historical  characters  is  a  secondary  development 
— due  to  confusion  or  to  poetic  imagination. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  put  forward  the  view  that  Beowulf, 
the  hero  of  the  poem,  has  been  confused  with  a  mythical 
character  of  the  same  name,  and  that  the  adventure  with  the 
dragon  originally  belonged  to  the  latter.  It  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  Scyld  Scefing,  the  father  of  this  earlier  Beowulf, 
was  also  a  mythical  character.  The  only  element  in  his  story 
common  to  English  and  Scandinavian  tradition  is  that  he  is 
regarded  as  the  ancestor  of  the  Scyldungas  or  Skioldungar,  the 
Danish  royal  family,  and  all  analogies  suggest  that  he  came  into 
existence  as  their  eponymus.  The  brief  account  of  him  given 
in  the  poem  might,  except  in  two  particulars,  be  applied  to 
almost  any  successful  king  of  the  Heroic  Age.  One  exception 
relates  to  the  story  of  the  funeral  ship,  on  which  the  dead  king's 
body    is   sent    out   to  sea.       In    spite    of   Prof.   Olrik's   doubts* 

^  Danmarks  Heltedigtning,  p.  248  ff.     With  this  subject  I  have  already  dealt  in 
The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.    287  f. 


132  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS    [CHAP. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  this  is  a  reminiscence  of  ancient  custom. 
The  other  is  the  reference  to  his  arrival  as  an  infant,  likewise 
by  sea — a  story  told  more  fully  of  Sceaf  in  certain  English 
chronicles.  The  only  question  here  is  between  myth  and  folk- 
tale. The  story  may  fairly  be  classed  under  the  latter  head, 
though  I  think  its  origin  is  ultimately  to  be  sought  in  a  ritual 
myth.  Scandinavian  authorities,  apart  from  Saxo^  record 
nothing  distinctive  of  Skioldr,  except  that  he  was  a  son  of  Othin 
and  the  husband  of  the  goddess  Gefion* — which  again  points  to 
myth. 

In  Scyld-Skibldr  we  have  the  case  of  an  eponymous  ancestor 
appearing  in  the  introduction  to  a  poem  which  deals  largely  with 
the  fortunes  of  his  descendants.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that 
his  own  deeds  ever  formed  the  subject  of  an  independent  heroic 
poem.  It  would  be  somewhat  hasty  therefore  to  use  this  case  as 
an  argument  for  the  origin  of  characters  who  are  brought  before 
us  in  the  main  action  of  heroic  poems. 

Next  we  may  take  the  .story  of  Weland,  as  to  the  mythical 
origin  of  which  nearly  all  scholars  seem  to  be  agreed.  It  has 
indeed  a  historical  or  semi-historical  connection  in  the  fact  that 
Weland  is  represented  as  the  father  of  Widia  (Wudga),  i.e.  the 
early  Gothic  hero  Vidigoia  mentioned  by  Jordanes  (cf.  p.  27) ; 
but  this  is  held  to  be  a  secondary  element  in  the  story.  In  its 
original  form  the  story  is  believed  to  have  dealt  only  with  the 
incidents  related  in  VolundarkvitJa,  viz.  (i)  the  adventure  with 
the  swan-maidens,  (ii)  Weland's  imprisonment  by  Nithhad  and 
his  revenged  Behind  the  story  itself  however  there  lies  a  wide- 
spread belief  in  the  existence  of  a  supernatural  smith  of  this 
name.  Several  places  in  Germany  (Westphalia  and  Holstein) 
are  reputed   to  be  the  scene  of  his  operations,  while  in  this 

^  Saxo  (p.  1 1  f.)  records  several  incidents  of  which  we  know  nothing  from  other 
sources.  He  represents  Skioldr  {Scioldus)  as  a  reformer  of  the  laws,  but  not  as  the 
first  king. 

^  This  is  stated  only  in  Ynglinga  Saga  (cap.  5) ;  but  the  question  to  be  asked  is 
whether  it  is  likely  that  such  a  combination  would  be  invented  in  late  times. 

^  From  Deor's  Elegy  and  the  picture  on  the  Franks  casket  in  the  British  Museum 
it  is  clear  that  almost  all  the  main  features  of  the  second  part  of  the  story  were  known 
in  England.  Reminiscences  of  the  first  part  occur  in  the  medieval  German  poem 
Herzog  Friedrich  von  Schwaben. 


VIl]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS  1 33 

country  he  is  connected  with  the  cromlech  called  Wayland 
Smith,  near  Ashdown  in  Berkshire.  In  its  ultimate  origin  this 
belief  is  traced  to  the  myth  of  a  fire-demon.  Certainly  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  name  Weland  is  of  a  very  exceptional  type — 
apparently  participial  in  form.  One  can  hardly  help  suspecting 
that  it  once  had  a  definite  meaning,  though  this  cannot  now  be 
determined  with  certainty^ 

Now  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  adventure  with  the 
swan-maidens  is  derived  from  a  folk-tale.  In  this  part  of  the 
story  there  is  no  indication  of  a  fire-demon,  or  even  of  a  smith, 
while  analogies  for  the  incident  are  fairly  common  both  in 
Teutonic  lands  and  much  farther  afield.  We  may  confine  our 
attention  therefore  to  the  second  and  better  known  part — that 
which  deals  with  Weland's  imprisonment  and  revenge. 

It  is  manifest  that  this  story  departs  very  decidedly  from  the 
ordinary  standard  of  heroic  poetry — firstly  in  the  fact  that  the 
hero  is  here  clearly  represented  as  a  smith,  and  secondly  in 
the  cruelty,  treachery  and  vindictiveness  ascribed  to  the  chief 
characters.  These  are  features  which  would  be  in  place  either  in 
myth  or  folk-tale.  But  we  may  note  further  that  there  are 
analogies  for  part  of  this  story,  just  as  much  as  for  the  incident 
of  the  swan-maidens.  As  an  example  we  may  take  Saxo's 
account  of  the  robbing  of  Mimingus  by  Hotherus  (p.  70  f). 
Mimingus  is  a  satyrus,  i.e.  clearly  either  an  elf  or  dwarf,  who 
dwells  in  a  cave  in  an  almost  inaccessible  forest.  Hotherus 
surprises  and  binds  him  and  then  takes  away  his  sword  and  a 
magical  ring.  A  connection  between  the  two  stories  is  shown 
even  in  the  name,  for  Weland's  most  famous  sword  is  called 
Mimmingl  For  a  more  remote  parallel  we  may  compare  the 
story  of  Loki  and  Andvari.  Indeed  the  spoiling  of  a  dwarf  is 
quite  a  common  motif  in  Northern  tales,  while  at  the  same  time 
such  beings  are  constantly  credited  with  extraordinary  skill  in 
metallurgy.  The  distinctive  feature  in  the  story  of  Weland,  apart 
from  the  revenge,  is  that  sympathy  is  on  the  side  of  the  smith. 

It  is  the  end  of  the  story — where  Weland  (Volundr)  rises 
into  the  air   and   flies  away — that  is   supposed  to  point  most 

^  It  is  usually  connected  with  O.  Norse  vel,  'contrivance,'  'artifice.' 
^  Waldhere,  i  2  f. ;  Thi'Sreks  Saga,  cap.  23  etc. 


134  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS    [CHAP. 

clearly  to  a  fire-myth.  But  this  feature  cannot  be  traced  except 
in  the  Norse  version ^  Moreover  here  we  have  also  the  ad- 
venture with  the  flying  swan-maidens,  in  whose  case  there  is  no 
suspicion  of  such  a  myth.  Setting  aside  this  incident  the  story 
is  perfectly  explicable  as  a  folk-tale  founded  on  actual  experi- 
ence. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  Heroic  Age — and 
indeed  in  much  earlier  times — princes  were  especially  anxious  to 
obtain  slaves,  whether  foreigners  or  not,  who  were  skilled  in 
metallurgy.  And  it  is  by  no  means  incredible  that  such  slaves 
were  sometimes  lamed  in  order  to  prevent  any  attempt  at  escape 
— although,  quite  apart  from  this  explanation,  smith's  work  may 
be  regarded  as  a  vocation  natural  to  the  lame  man,  just  as 
minstrelsy  to  the  blind.  Further,  it  is  likely  enough  that  servile 
smiths,  when  cruelly  treated,  would  take  any  opportunity  that 
presented  itself  of  avenging  themselves  on  their  masters.  For 
the  murder  of  Nithhad's  sons  we  have  a  somewhat  striking 
historical  parallel  in  Eugippus'  Life  of  St  Severinus  (cap.  8). 
Feletheus,  king  of  the  Rugii,  who  were  settled  on  the  Danube 
in  the  time  of  Odoacer,  had  a  young  son  who  one  day  was 
entrapped  by  some  goldsmiths  in  the  queen's  service.  They 
threatened  to  take  his  life ;  but  the  saint  intervened  and  rescued 
the  boy  on  condition  of  the  smiths  obtaining  their  freedom^ 

What  seems  to  me  to  be  really  the  most  remarkable  feature 
in  the  story  is  that  a  person  in  this  position  should  come  to  be 
made  the  subject  of  heroic  or  semi-heroic  poetry ;  for  it  is  plain 
enough  from  many  sources,  especially  Saxo's  History,  that  smiths 
were  generally  regarded  with  deep  aversion.  In  Deor's  Elegy 
Weland  is  said  to  be  a  more  distinguished  man  than  Nithhad ; 
in  VolundarkviSa  he  is  called  a  chief  of  the  elves,  while  the  intro- 
duction makes  him  the  son  of  a  king  of  the  Finns.  Yet,  except  in 
the  late  ThiSreks  Saga,  his  father's  name  is  never  given,  and  none 
of  our  authorities  credit  him  with  possessing  a  following  of  his  own. 

^  In  Thi'Sreks  Saga,  cap.  30,  Weland  flies  away  in  a  garment  which  he  has  made 
from  feathers  collected  for  him  by  his  brother  Egill.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  the 
engraver  of  the  Franks  casket  had  the  same  story  in  mind,  since  a  figure  catching 
birds  is  represented  behind  the  form  of  Beaduhild. 

^  It  is  commonly  held  that  this  account  has  been  influenced  somehow  by  the  story 
of  Weland.  If  so  it  is  a  valuable  illustration  of  the  process  discussed  in  p.  1 19  ff.  above. 
But  the  view  seems  to  me  somewhat  far-fetched. 


VIl]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  1 35 

Now  is  there  any  real  necessity  for  the  assumption  that 
Weland's  relationship  to  Widia  is  a  secondary  development  ? 
It  is  found  in  two  of  the  three  national  versions  of  the  story  \  and 
hence  dates  back  in  all  probability  at  least  to  the  sixth  century. 
It  is  not  found  in  the  Volundarkvit5a  ;  but  then  Widia  is  alto- 
gether forgotten  or  unknown  in  Northern  tradition.  Moreover 
there  is  a  distinct  reference  to  offspring  of  Weland  and  Beaduhild 
at  the  end  of  the  poem.  Once  grant  that  the  relationship  is  old 
and  the  reason  for  the  heroic  treatment  of  the  story  becomes 
obvious.  It  is  merely  the  reflection  of  the  son's  fame  upon  the 
father.  As  Widia  is  never  said  to  be  the  son  of  anyone  else 
the  probability  is  that  he  was  supposed  to  be  illegitimate,  and 
that  a  story  was  soon  current  as  to  his  being  the  offspring  of  a 
union  between  a  princess  and  a  bondsmith.  In  such  a  case  there 
would  be  a  natural  tendency  to  the  accumulation  of  material 
from  folk-tales  about  his  parentage. 

If  this  view  is  correct  the  story  must  of  course  come 
originally  from  the  Goths  or  some  neighbouring  people.  I 
cannot  see  that  the  Westphalian  traditions  are  any  more  con- 
clusive than  the  Berkshire  cromlech  as  to  its  original  home. 
If  Weland  was  a  character  of  folk-tale  and  his  name  had  at 
one  time  a  definite  meaning,  these  local  traditions  may  have 
been  quite  independent  of  the  heroic  story.  The  real  difficulty 
seems  to  me  to  lie  in  determining  the  amount  of  material  from 
folk-tale  contained  in  the  latter.  We  need  not  entertain  any 
doubt  as  to  the  adventure  with  the  swan-maidens.  But  what 
about  Nithhad  and  Beaduhild  .'*  The  latter  name  is  not  obviously 
framed  to  suit  the  character  or  circumstances  of  the  unfortunate 
princess.  Nithhad  might  be  explained  more  easily  in  this  way  ; 
yet  a  Gothic  prince  of  that  name  is  recorded  by  Jordanes  (cap.  22). 
At  all  events  there  is  no  conclusive  evidence  in  either  case  that 
these  characters  did  not  originally  belong  to  the  story  of  Widia, 

Another  story  which  is  believed  to  be  of  wholly  mythical 
origin  is  that  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni.     In  Kudrun  it  appears  as 

^  Waldhere  is  the  only  English  poem  which  mentions  Weland  as  the  father  of 
Widia;  but  I  cannot  admit  that  there  is  any  ground  for  supposing  this  poem  to  have 
had  a  different  origin  from  the  rest  (cf.  p.  57  f.).  The  variant  forms  Widia — Wudga 
may  be  explained  by  English  sound-laws,  while  Ni^had^  whatever  its  explanation, 
occurs  also  in  Deor's  Elegy. 


136  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS     [CHAP. 

the  introduction  to  a  much  longer  story,  from  which  point  of 
view  it  bears  a  superficial  resemblance  to  the  story  of  Scyld  and 
possibly  to  that  of  Weland.  But  since  this  feature  is  peculiar 
to  the  German  poem  and  the  second  story  seems  to  be  entirely 
unknown  from  other  sources,  we  can  hardly  do  otherwise  than 
treat  the  story  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni  as  an  independent  narrative. 
This  must  have  been  one  of  the  most  popular  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age,  since  it  can  be  traced  in  England,  as  well  as  in 
Germany  and  the  North.  None  of  the  characters  however  can 
be  traced  in  any  historical  work^,  and  the  time  to  which  it  refers 
is  quite  uncertain.  The  Northern  version  of  the  story  contains 
a  supernatural  element  in  the  endless  battle  which  forms  its 
conclusion.  It  is  generally  held  that  this  is  the  oldest  element 
in  the  story  and  that  Hild,  whose  name  means  *  war,'  was  really 
a  valkyrie.  The  whole  story  then  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  myth 
of  '  unceasing  strife  between  conflicting  powers^.'  But  we  may 
naturally  ask  whether  it  is  truly  scientific,  when  dealing  with  a 
story  known  from  three  separate  national  traditions,  to  regard 
as  the  original  element  a  feature  found  in  only  one  of  the  three. 
It  may  be  urged  of  course  that  the  reconciliation,  which  in 
Kudrun^  takes  the  place  of  the  tragic  ending  found  in  the 
Northern  version,  rendered  it  necessary  to  drop  the  mythical 
element ;  and  again  that  we  have  extremely  little  information 

^  Saxo  (p.  158  IT.)  connects  the  story  with  the  reign  of  Frotho  III  (Fro^i  the 
Peaceful),  and  this  may  be  an  ancient  feature,  as  Fruote  von  Tenemarke  appears  as 
one  of  Hetel's  chief  men  in  Kudrdn. 

^  "  Ein  Bild  des  unaufhorlichen,  allgemeinen,  aber  nie  entschiedenen  Kampfes 
entgegengesetzter  Machte,  des  Aufgangs  und  des  Niedergangs,  des  Entstehens  und 
Vergehens,  des  Seins  und  Nichtseins"  (Miillenhoff,  ZfdA.  xxx  229).  Prof.  Sijmons 
[Grundriss,  III  yri,  where  this  interpretation  is  quoted  with  approval)  regards  the 
story  as  '  tiefsinnig.'  I  confess  the  interpretation  is  too  deep  for  my  comprehension. 
A  totally  different  view  is  taken  in  Panzer's  Hilde-Gudrun,  where  the  origin  of  the 
story  is  traced  to  a  folk-tale  (p.  250  ff.).  It  seems  to  me  that  this  theory  is  open  to 
somewhat  the  same  objection  as  the  other,  namely  that  it  is  founded  too  much  upon 
features  peculiar  to  one  or  other  version.  At  the  same  time  I  doubt  whether  Wate's 
original  connection  with  the  story  can  be  properly  inferred  from  Wids.  21  f.  The 
influence  of  folk-tales  is  clear  enough  in  both  versions  of  the  story,  but  I  think  it  is 
secondary. 

2  From  a  passage  in  Lamprecht's  Alexander  (v.  1321),  a  work  of  the  twelfth 
century,  it  appears  that  Hagen  (Hogni)  was  killed  in  the  earlier  German  version  of 
the  story. 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN   THE    HEROIC   POEMS  1 3/ 

about  the  English  form  of  the  story.  The  latter  remark  is 
certainly  true ;  but  the  little  that  we  do  know  practically 
precludes  the  possibility  of  a  mythical  interpretation.  Strictly 
speaking  the  passage  in  Deor's  Elegy  (cf.  p.  56)  is  not  a  reference 
to  the  story  at  all,  but  a  matter  of  fact  statement  by  the  poet 
that  he  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Heodeningas.  Hence, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  passage — together  with  Widsith, 
V.  21 — is  probably  by  far  the  earliest  reference  to  the  story 
which  we  possess,  I  cannot  regard  the  mythical  interpretation 
as  anything  more  than  an  extremely  doubtful  hypothesis^ 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  stories  which  are 
supposed  to  be  of  entirely  mythical  origin.  Now  we  have  to 
consider  certain  cases  in  which  elements  undoubtedly  historical 
are  believed  to  be  blended  with  myth.  As  examples  of  this 
type  we  may  take  the  stories  of  Waldhere  and  SigurSr.  In  both 
cases  the  historical  elements  are  practically  the  same. 

In  the  former  case  it  should  be  mentioned  that  the  mythical 
theory  is  by  no  means  universally  accepted.  Those  scholars 
however  who  do  adopt  this  interpretation  base  their  view  upon 
a  supposed  connection  between  the  story  of  Waldhere  and  that 
of  He'Sinn  and  Hogni.  The  chief  points  of  resemblance  between 
the  two  are  as  follows  :  (i)  The  heroine  is  called  in  the  one 
case  Hiltgund  (Hildegyth),  in  the  other  Hildr  (Hild).  (ii)  Both 
stories  deal  with  abduction  (so-called)  and  then  with  fighting, 
(iii)  The  man  (Waldhere,  HeSinn)  who  carries  off  the  girl  has 
in  both  cases  to  fight  with  a  man  called  Hagen  or  Hogni. 
(iv)  In  both  cases  the  combatants  have  previously  been  friends — 
though  strictly  this  feature  applies  only  to  the  Northern  version 
of  the  HeSinn  story.  Now  the  first  consideration  carries  no 
weight  at  all  ;  for  half  the  feminine  names  which  occur  in 
Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poetry  contain  the  element  -hild-  (e.g. 
Beaduhild,  Hildeburg),  while  in  the  Continental  and  Scandinavian 
authorities  also  they  are  extremely  common.  Again,  the  last 
consideration  obviously  has  little  validity,  except  when  taken 
in  conjunction  with  the  other  two.     But  these  (the  second  and 

^  For  the  endless  battle  there  are  a  number  of  parallels;  cf.  Panzer,  op.  cit., 
p.  327  ff.  (also  Pausanias,  i  32.  3,  with  Mr  Frazer's  note). 


138  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS    [CHAP. 

third)  points  of  resemblance  are,  it  seems  to  me,  altogether 
misleading.  To  begin  with  it  is  hardly  correct  to  apply  the 
term  '  abduction '  to  an  escape  of  hostages,  such  as  the  story 
of  Waldhere  relates ;  at  all  events  the  conditions  have  nothing 
in  common.  Then  the  fight  which  follows  is  not,  as  in  the 
case  of  HeSinn  and  Hogni,  with  an  aggrieved  father,  or  indeed 
with  a  pursuing  force  of  any  kind  ;  it  is  an  unprovoked  attack 
made  by  a  third  party  in  the  hope  of  plunder.  Lastly,  the  part 
played  by  the  person  called  Hagen  (Hogni)  is  quite  different 
in  the  two  cases.  In  one  he  is  the  injured  father  who  is  wholly 
responsible  for  the  fight;  in  the  other  he  is  a  vassal  of  Gunther 
(Guthhere),  who  is  only  drawn  into  it,  with  great  reluctance, 
through  the  obligation  of  avenging  his  nephew  (Patufrit),  who 
has  already  been  slain. 

It  is  true  that  a  different  version  of  the  story  appears  in 
ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern^  Here  Hogni  (Hagen)  is  represented 
as  pursuing  the  fugitives  on  behalf  of  Attila,  while  Guthhere 
does  not  appear.  Now  it  has  been  widely  assumed  that  this 
version  is  an  independent  and  more  original  form  of  the  story 
than  that  contained  in  Ekkehard's  work,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
it  does  not  make  its  appearance  till  nearly  three  centuries  after 
the  latter — and  probably  nearly  six  centuries  after  the  composi- 
tion of  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem.  But  the  lapse  of  time  in  itself 
provides  a  perfectly  adequate  explanation  of  such  divergencies, 
especially  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  unfavourable  conditions  under 
which  the  heroic  stories  were  preserved  in  Germany  during  the 
early  Middle  Ages.  As  the  stories  gradually  became  forgotten 
two  tendencies  are  constantly  observable  :  (i)  to  connect  stories 
or  incidents  which  originally  were  quite  distinct,  (ii)  within  the 
individual  story  to  lose  sight  of  all  except  the  outstanding 
characters  and  incidents.  Hence  it  is  only  in  accordance  with 
what  we  might  expect  that  two  different  sets  of  opponents  of 
the  hero  should  be  confused.  For  a  parallel  we  may  compare 
the  late  North  German  ballad  on  Eormenric's  death  (cf.  p.  9), 
which  describes  how  Theodric  with  eleven  companions  broke 
into  the  king's  castle  and  slew  him.     It  is  generally  agreed  that 

^  There  is  also  a  Polish  version  which  has  several  peculiarities  of  its  own  but 
shows  no  special  affinity  with  the  form  of  the  story  found  in  ThitSreks  Saga. 


VIl]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN   THE   HEROIC   POEMS  1 39 

this  ballad  is  due  to  confusion  of  some  kind  with  the  story  of 
HamSir  and  Sorli\  who  were  likewise  enemies  of  Eormenric, 
though  not  connected  in  any  way  with  Theodric. 

The  saga  itself  really  contains  evidence  which  points  to  an 
earlier  form  of  the  story  agreeing  with  that  given  by  Ekkehard. 
For  the  hero  is  called  Valtari  af  Vaskasteini-,  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  expression  is  to  be  explained  by  the  rocky 
defile  mentioned  by  Ekkehard  (v.  490  ff.)  in  the  Vosges  {saltus 
Vosagiis) — on  the  confines  of  Guthhere's  dominions.  Further 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  story  is  introduced  as  an  episode  in 
the  relations  of  Theodric  and  Eormenric,  and  that  the  hero  is 
represented  as  a  nephew  of  the  last  named.  All  scholars  are 
agreed  that  this  is  due  to  late  combination — and  no  doubt  rightly. 
Yet  Waldhere  is  associated  with  Theodric  and  Eormenric  also 
in  a  number  of  German  poems  which  are  quite  independent  of 
the  saga,  and  consequently  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
these  combinations  both  preceded  and  helped  to  bring  about 
the  disappearance  of  Guthhere  from  the  story. 

In  its  earlier  form  the  affinities  of  the  story  with  that  of 
HeSinn  and  Hogni  are,  as  we  have  seen,  scarcely  worth  con- 
sideration. Yet  apart  from  this  supposed  connection  there  is 
no  case  for  believing  it  to  have  a  mythical  foundation — except 
the  assumption  that  myth  is  a  necessary  ingredient  in  every 
heroic  story.  Whether  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  history  or  fiction 
is  of  course  quite  a  different  question  and  one  which  we  shall 
have  to  consider  later. 

Of  all  the  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age  probably  none  has 
been  more  frequently  referred  to  a  mythical  origin  than  that 
which  deals  with  SigurSr  (Siegfried).  It  is  held  by  the  great 
majority  of  scholars  that  the  Nibelungenlied  and  the  corre- 
sponding Edda  poems — or  rather  the  earlier  poems  or  legends 
on  which  both  were  based — came  into  existence  through  the 

^  The  early  North  German  version  of  this  story,  represented  by  the  Annals  of 
Quedlinburg  (cf.  p.  37,  note),  apparently  made  Eormenric  perish  in  the  fight. 

*  It  is  held  by  many  that  this  name  was  originally  connected  with  IVascono  lani, 
an  early  German  name  for  Aquitaine  (Gascony)  and  that  the  introduction  of  the 
Vosges  ( Wasgunberg)  was  later  and  due  to  the  confusion  of  two  similar  names.  But, 
if  there  has  been  any  such  confusion  at  all,  chronological  considerations  render  it  far 
more  probable  that  the  transference  was  in  the  reverse  direction. 


140  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS    [CHAP. 

amalgamation  of  an  essentially  mythical  story  with  historical 
traditions  of  Attila  and  the  fall  of  the  Burgundian  kingdom  ^ 
The  original  elements  of  the  former  are  believed  to  have  been 
as  follows  :  A  young  prince  is  brought  up  by  a  cunning  smith 
in  a  forest,  away  from  his  father's  home.  On  reaching  manhood 
he  gains  an  immense  treasure  by  killing  a  dragon  ;  also  he 
releases  a  maiden  by  overcoming  difficulties  and  dangers,  by 
fire  or  water,  which  were  insurmountable  to  any  other  person. 
These  two  adventures  are  connected  by  many  scholars.  Later, 
the  hero  falls  into  the  hands  of  foes,  who  slay  him  and  take 
for  themselves  his  wife  and  treasure. 

It  is  held  that  this  story  was  originally  a  myth  of  light  and 
darkness — applying  however  to  the  course  of  the  year  as  well 
as  to  that  of  the  day.  SigurSr  himself  is  a  '  light-hero '  and 
Brynhildr  a  '  sun-maiden '  whom  he  releases  at  the  dawn,  while 
the  treasure  represents  the  blossoms  of  summer  which  the  light- 
hero  likewise  wins  by  destroying  the  dragon  of  winter.  Then, 
in  the  evening  or  autumn,  he  has  to  yield  to  the  powers  of 
darkness  or  winter.  The  original  name  of  these  powers  was 
Niflungar  or  Nibelunge,  a  name  connected  with  Old  Norse  7iiH, 
'mist,'  Niflheimr,  'Hades.'  Their  chief  representative  is  Hogni  or 
Hagen,  who,  like  SigurSr  and  Brynhildr,  belongs  to  the  mythical 
elements  of  the  story.  Many  scholars  also  hold  that  the  powers 
which  destroyed  the  hero  and  appropriated  his  wife  and  treasure 
were  originally  identical  with  those  from  which  he  had  won 
them  at  the  beginning ;  and  this  view  seems  to  be  more  or  less 
involved  by  the  interpretation  given  above,  since  day  and  night, 
winter  and  summer  are  constantly  alternating  with  one  another. 

Now  it  will  be  obvious  at  once  that  the  story  as  thus 
reconstructed  differs  greatly  from  both  the  forms  in  which  it 
has  come  down  to  us.  Indeed  the  only  original  feature  preserved 
in  both  versions  is  the  slaying  of  the  dragon  by  SigurtJr.  But 
it  is  only  in  the  Norse  version  that  the  hero  gains  the  treasure 
thereby ;  in  the  Nibelungenlied  this  is  obtained  by  a  different 
encounter,  with  two  princes  named  Schilbung  and  Nibelung, 
while   in  the  Seyfridslied  it  really   belonged  to  certain  dwarfs, 

'  Among  the  exceptions  mention  may  be  made  especially  of  an  interesting  paper 
by  Prof.  Mogk  in  Neue  Jahrbilcher,  I  pp.  68 — 80. 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  I4I 

the  sons  of  Nybling^  Again,  only  the  Norse  version  records 
that  SigurSr  released  Brynhildr — from  a  perpetual  sleep  with 
which  she  had  been  punished  ;  the  incident  is  not  connected 
with  the  dragon  adventure.  The  Seyfridslied  does  relate  that 
the  hero  rescued  a  maiden  from  a  dragon  ;  but  here  the  maiden 
is  Kriemhild,  whom  the  dragon  has  carried  off  from  her  home. 
Further,  it  is  only  in  the  German  version  that  Hagen  kills  the 
hero.  In  the  Norse  version  the  actual  perpetrator  of  the  deed 
is  Gutthormr,  but  the  instigator  is  Brynhildr  herself  Lastly, 
neither  version  of  the  story  makes  Brynhildr  or  the  treasure 
return  to  their  former  owners,  although — in  the  German  version 
only — the  first  owners  of  the  treasure  bear  the  same  name  as 
those  into  whose  possession  it  comes  after  the  hero's  death. 

It  appears  then  that  the  original  form  of  this  story  has  been 
greatly  obscured  in  both  versions.  The  explanation  given  is 
that,  through  confusion  with  a  historical  tradition,  the  Burgundian 
kings,  Gunnarr  (Gunther)  and  his  brothers,  have  taken  the  place 
(as  well  as  the  name)  of  the  Niflungar.  Hence,  in  order  to  form  a 
just  estimate  of  the  theory  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the  various 
mythical  characters  separately.  These  are — in  addition  to  the 
dragon — Brynhildr,  SigurSr  and  the  Niflungar,  including  Hogni. 

The  evidence  for  believing  that  Brynhildr  was  originally  a 
mythical  character  lies  chiefly^  in  the  identification  of  her  with 
the  valkyrie  Sigrdn'fa  (cf  p.  13),  who  is  mentioned  only  in  the 
Norse  version.  The  identity  of  the  two  characters  is  clearly 
recognised  in  the  Helreit5  Brynhildar  and  also  in  the  prose 
authorities.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  not  recognised  in  Gn'pisspd, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  a  late  work,  while  the  other  poems 
leave  it  uncertain.  The  evidence  therefore  on  the  whole  is  not 
very  strong. 

^  It  is  stated  however  that  Seyfrid  thought  that  it  belonged  to  the  dragon.  Hence 
this  story  is  often  connected  with  the  Norse  version. 

^  The  only  German  evidence  worth  consideration  is  the  fact  that  certain  rocks  in 
the  Taunus  and  the  Palatinate  are  called  the  '  bed '  or  '  chair  of  Brynhildr '  {lectidus 
Brunnihilde,  Brinholdestut)  in  medieval  documents.  But  I  do  not  see  how  these 
names  can  prove  anything  more  than  the  popularity  of  the  story.  In  all  lands  it  is 
customary  to  adopt  such  names  from  remarkable  characters,  whatever  their  origin 
may  be.  We  may  think  of  the  cave  of  Frederic  Barbarossa  at  Berchtesgaden  or  the 
numerous  places  called  after  Robin  Hood  in  England. 


142  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS    [CHAP. 

In  the  case  of  SigurSr  the  evidence,  apart  from  the  valkyrie 
incident,  rests  upon  his  being  the  slayer  of  the  dragon.  But 
it  is  agreed  that  this  part  of  the  story  must  be  connected 
with  the  similar  adventure  attributed  by  Beowulf  to  Sigemund 
(Sigmundr)  ;  so  that  the  question  at  issue  is  whether  the  exploit 
was  first  related  of  the  father  or  the  son.  We  have  already 
seen  (p.  123)  that  the  argument  in  favour  of  the  latter  based 
on  the  agreement  of  the  Norse  and  German  authorities  is  in 
reality  misleading.  Hence  the  balance  of  probability  is  in 
favour  of  believing  that  the  incident  has  been  transferred  to 
SigurtJr  from  Sigemund. 

In  the  case  of  the  Niflungar  the  evidence  depends  upon  the 
interpretation  of  the  name.  The  use  of  the  name  is  certainly 
somewhat  curious.  In  the  Seyfridslied  (Part  II)  the  dwarfs  are 
called  sons  of  Nybling.  In  the  first  half  of  the  Nibelungenlied 
Nibelung  is  the  name  of  one  of  the  brothers  slain  by  Siegfried 
in  his  youth,  while  the  people  who  become  subject  to  him, 
together  with  the  treasure,  on  the  death  of  the  brothers,  are 
collectively  called  Nibelunge.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  poem 
however  the  same  name  is  applied  to  the  Burgundians.  In  the 
Norse  version  Niflungar  always  means  Gunnarr  and  his  people 
(i.e.  the  Burgundians),  except  perhaps  in  the  expressions  arfi 
Niflunga,  hodd  Niflunga  (in  AtlakviSa),  by  which  the  prose 
authorities  at  all  events  understood  the  treasure  which  SigurSr 
had  taken  from  Fdfnir.  The  explanation  given  for  this  double 
use  of  the  name  is  as  follows.  Originally  it  belonged  to  the 
mythical  enemies  of  SigurtJr,  i.e.  Hogni  and  his  people — whether 
these  were  identical  with  the  former  owners  of  the  treasure  or 
not.  Later,  when  Hogni  became  associated  with  the  historical 
Burgundian  kings  (Gunnarr  etc.),  the  use  of  the  term  was 
extended  so  as  to  embrace  them  also.  But  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  interpretation  of  the  name  Niflungar  as  '  children  of 
mist '  or  '  darkness '  is  not  free  from  difficulty.  In  the  Edda  it 
is  twice  written  Hniflung-^,  and  on  both  occasions  the  H- 
alliterates,  whereas  alliteration   with  71-  is  never   found.     This 

^  Helgakv.  Hund.  i  48,  Atlamal  88.  In  the  former  case  the  name  is  used  quite 
generally,  like  Ylfingar  in  the  same  poem.  In  the  latter  Hnijlungr  is  the  name  of 
Hogni's  son. 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN   THE   HEROIC    POEMS  I43 

fact  suggests  that  the  original  form  of  the  name  was  Hniflungar 
and  that  the  form  without  H-  is  due  to  later  influence — pre- 
sumably on  the  part  of  scribes — from  German  sources,  where 
of  course  the  H-  (before  -n-)  would  regularly  be  lost  at  a  much 
earlier  date.  If  so  the  name  cannot  originally  have  had  any 
connection  with  O.  Norse  nifl,  etc. 

In  all  these  three  cases  then  the  evidence  for  the  mytho- 
logical interpretation  of  the  story  seems  to  be  at  best  inconclusive. 
But  we  have  yet  to  consider  the  case  of  Hogni ;  and  here  it 
must  be  remarked  that  the  demonic  character  of  Hogni  is  quite 
essential  to  the  mythological  theory.  In  the  Norse  version 
Gutthormr  is  a  mere  instrument  and  the  person  really  respon- 
sible for  the  murder  is  Brynhildr  herself — a  feature  obviously 
incompatible  with  the  interpretation  which  we  are  discussing. 
Hogni's  mythical  origin  is  as  necessary  for  this  interpretation 
as  that  of  SigurSr  or  Brynhildr.  In  order  to  maintain  the 
theory  the  mythical  character  must  be  vindicated  in  all  three 
cases  alike. 

Now  it  has  been  remarked  that  Hagen  {Haguno,  Hagano 
etc.)  is  not  uncommon  as  a  personal  name  even  in  quite  early 
times.  This  is  a  curious  fact  if  the  name  had  such  associations  \ 
But  there  is  a  much  more  serious  difficulty.  It  is  altogether 
contrary  to  reason  or  probability  to  separate  Hagen  the  vassal 
of  Gunther  in  the  Nibelungenlied  from  Hagen  the  vassal  of  the 
same  Gunther  in  the  story  of  Waldhere.  His  character  in  the 
two  cases  is  certainly  quite  different.  He  is  brave  in  both  ;  but 
in  the  former  he  is  both  faithless  and  cruel,  whereas  in  the 
latter  he  is  an  honourable  man  who  is  reluctantly  drawn  by 
circumstances  into  a  course  of  action  of  which  he  heartily 
disapproves.  But  this  is  precisely  the  character  borne  by  Hogni 
in  the  Norse  version  of  the  story  of  SigurSr — a  fact  which  is  the 
more  remarkable  since  this  type  of  character  is  extremely  rare 
in  heroic  poetry.  The  agreement  between  the  story  of  Waldhere 
and  the  Norse  version  seem  to  me  to  render  it  overwhelmingly 
probable  that  the  character  which  they  ascribe  to  Hogni  was 
that  which  he  originally  bore. 

^  There  was  of  course  another  heroic  character  of  the  same  name ;  but  this  does 
not  meet  the  objection. 


144  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS    [ClIAP. 

I  am  not  arguing  now  to  prove  that  Hbgni  was  a  historical 
person.  He  may  be  of  fictitious  origin  or  even  mythical  (though 
the  latter  seems  to  me  extremely  improbable).  But  if  so  clearly 
he  must  have  been  taken  either  from  the  story  of  SigurSr  into 
that  of  Waldhere,  or  from  the  story  of  Waldhere  into  that  of 
SigurSr.  Which  of  the  two  he  belonged  to  originally  is  a 
question  of  minor  importance.  The  essential  point  is  that  an 
earlier  German  form  of  the  story  of  SigurSr  must  be  the  link 
between  the  Norse  version  and  the  story  of  Waldhere ;  for  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  story  of  Waldhere  itself  was  ever  known 
in  the  North.  The  conclusion  to  which  we  are  naturally  brought 
is  that  in  this  earlier  German  form  of  the  story  Hogni  bore  the 
same  character  which  is  attributed  to  him  in  the  Norse  version. 
This  character  however  is  of  course  totally  incompatible  with  a 
demonic  origin  ;  and  here,  it  seems  to  me,  the  interpretation 
which  we  are  discussing  hopelessly  breaks  down. 

I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  investigation  of  the  whole 
story  has  been  greatly  prejudiced  by  the  application  of  wro\ig 
methods.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  story  of  some  kind — 
in  which  the  adventures  of  SigurtSr  were  already  combined  with 
those  of  the  historical  Burgundian  princes — was  in  existence 
long  before  the  date  of  the  earliest  extant  records,  and  that 
from  this  story,  whether  it  was  embodied  in  a  single  poem  or 
consisted  only  of  a  mass  of  lays  or  legends,  both  the  Norse  and 
German  versions  are  ultimately  derived.  It  seems  to  me  that, 
before  trying  to  ascertain  the  origin  of  the  various  elements 
contained  in  the  story,  the  object  should  be  to  determine  the 
main  features  of  this  common  foundation.  The  way  to  achieve 
this  end  is  surely  not  by  arbitrarily  selecting  one  feature  from 
the  Norse  version  and  another  from  the  German,  but  by  bringing 
together  all  the  various  features  which  the  two  have  in  common. 
To  carry  out  such  a  process  systematically  would  be  quite 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  book,  but  a  brief  outline  of  the  scheme 
may  not  be  out  of  place  here. 

First  then  we  will  take  the  part  of  the  story  relating  to  the 
hero's  early  adventures,  which  is  preserved  mainly  in  a  different 
set  of  authorities  from  the  rest.  The  chief  German  authority 
is  the  late  Seyfridslied  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  really  made 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  I45 

up  of  two  different  ballads,  inconsistent  with  one  another.  The 
Nibelungenlied  contains  only  allusions  to  this  part  of  the  story, 
the  action  proper  beginning  shortly  before  the  hero's  arrival  at 
Worms,  The  Norse  version  is  given  in  the  trilogy,  Reginsm^l, 
Fdfnismdl  and  Sigrdn'fumal,  as  well  as  in  Volsunga  Saga,  which 
is  derived  from  these  poems.  The  account  given  in  ThiSreks 
Saga  is  mainly  a  combination  of  the  German  and  Norse  versions, 
though  it  has  one  or  two  features  peculiar  to  itself. 

In  this  part  of  the  story  the  common  elements  are  very  few 
in  number,  (i)  SigurSr  kills  a  dragon;  (2)  SigurSr  gains  a  great 
treasure.  In  the  Norse  version  the  two  adventures  are  combined, 
but  in  the  Nibelungenlied  the  treasure  belonged  to  Nibelung 
and  his  brother  who  had  quarrelled  and  who  are  both  killed  by 
the  hero.  It  may  be  noticed  that  Reginn  and  Fdfnir  are  also 
brothers  who  have  quarrelled  over  a  treasure,  and  they  too  are 
both  killed  by  SigurSr;  but  Fdfnir  has  become  a  dragon — or 
perhaps  a  reptile.  The  Seyfridslied,  Part  I  mentions  only  the 
killing  of  a  dragon  (serpent),  while  Part  II  unites  the  acquisition 
of  the  treasure  with  the  killing  of  a  dragon — a  fiery  dragon — 
but  states  that  the  hero  erroneously  thought  that  the  treasure 
belonged  to  the  dragon.  Really  it  belonged  to  the  three  sons 
of  the  dwarf-king  Nybling,  who  are  friendly  to  the  hero  and 
not  killed  by  him.  As  a  further  common  element  we  may 
mention  (3)  that  SigurSr  is  brought  up  by  a  smith.  This  story 
is  found  in  the  Seyfridslied,  Part  I,  and  in  ThiSreks  Saga — 
practically  also  in  the  Edda,  since  Reginn  is  represented  as  a 
smith.  Again,  (4)  both  in  the  "ballad  and  in  Norse  prose 
authorities  SigurSr  breaks  the  smith's  anvil,  though  the  circum- 
stances are  quite  different.  It  is  doubtful  whether  we  should 
connect  the  eating  of  Fafnir's  heart,  which  enabled  the  hero 
to  understand  the  birds,  with  the  German  story  that  he  became 
invulnerable  by  bathing  in  the  dragon's  blood.  Further,  we 
have  seen  that  the  awakening  of  the  valkyrie  in  Sigrdrifumdl 
has  practically  nothing  in  common  with  the  rescue  of  the 
maiden  (Kriemhild)  from  the  dragon  related  in  the  ballad 
(Part  II).  Lastly,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  though  the  hero's 
father  has  the  same  name  (Sigemund)  in  all  authorities,  there 
is  great  discrepancy  as  to  his  childhood.     In  the  Edda  he  is 


146  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS    [CHAP. 

posthumous  but  knows  his  parentage,  in  the  NibelungenHed 
he  is  brought  up  at  his  father's  court,  in  the  ballad.  Part  I, 
he  leaves  his  home  and  goes  to  the  smithy,  in  Part  II  and 
ThiSreks  Saga  he  does  not  know  his  parentage — in  the  latter 
indeed  he  is  a  foundling  and  suckled  by  a  hind.  It  will  be  seen 
that  this  part  of  the  story  is  permeated  throughout  by  the  super- 
natural and  marvellous. 

From  the  time  of  the  hero's  arrival  at  the  Burgundian  court 
we  may  take  the  Nibelungenlied  for  the  German  version,  while 
the  Norse  one  is  best  represented  by  the  poems  from  the 
fragmentary  SigurSarkviSa  I  to  Atlamdl.  For  the  earlier  portion 
we  have  also  to  use  Volsunga  Saga  and  the  prose  Edda  in  place 
of  certain  poems  which  are  lost  (cf.  p.  13),  In  this  part  of  the 
story  the  elements  common  to  the  two  versions  are  far  more 
numerous  and  striking,  (i)  SigurSr  comes  to  the  Rhineland 
(Worms  in  the  German  version)  and  marries  a  sister  (GuSrun, 
Kriemhild)  of  King  Gunnarr  (Gunther).  (2)  SigurtSr  in  super- 
natural disguise  wins  Brynhildr  for  Gunnarr.  (3)  SigurSr  again 
in  supernatural  disguise  sleeps  with  Brynhildr  and  takes  from 
her  a  ring^  (4)  Brynhildr  quarrels  with  SigurSr's  wife,  and 
the  latter  shows  her  the  ring^  (5)  Brynhildr  bitterly  resents 
the  treatment  she  has  received  and  devises  the  hero's  death. 
(6)  SigurSr  is  killed  by  treachery ;  but  the  versions  differ  in 
regard  to  the  perpetrator  of  the  deed.  (7)  The  hero's  widow 
is  for  a  long  time  irreconcilable,  but  eventually  is  married  to 
Atli  (Etzel).  (8)  Gunnarr  with  Hogni  and  many  others  are 
invited  to  Atli's  home,  {gj  The  gold  is  sunk  in  the  Rhine. 
(10)  Gunnarr  and  Hogni  are  captured  alive  and  the  rest  killed 
in  Atli's  land.  (11)  A  demand  for  the  gold  is  made  and  refused. 
(,12)  Gunnarr  and  Hogni  are  killed. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  supernatural  is  here  confined  to  (2) 
and  (3);  indeed  these  are  almost  the  only  incidents  in  which  it 
occurs  in  this  part  of  the  story.  There  is  a  difference  between 
the  two  versions  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  supernatural 
disguise.  In  the  Norse  version,  where  the  two  incidents  are 
combined,  SigurSr  and  Gunnarr  have  exchanged  forms ;  in  the 
German  Gunther  is  present  in  both  cases,  though  Siegfried,  who 

^  On  both  these  occasions  the  Nibelungenlied  mentions  also  a  girdle. 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN   THE   HEROIC   POEMS  I47 

has  rendered  himself  invisible,  is  the  real  actor.  Several  other 
important  differences  between  the  two  versions  have  already 
been  noted  (p.  13  f.).  In  addition  to  these  each  version  has  of 
course  many  characters  and  incidents  peculiar  to  itself. 

Of  the  discrepancies  enumerated  on  p.  13  f.  the  fifth  is  by  far 
the  most  important,  since  Kriemhild's  revenge  for  Siegfried 
forms  the  central  motif  of  the  second  half  of  the  Nibelungenlied. 
In  the  Norse  version  no  such  central  motif  is  to  be  found.  In 
the  prose  piece  Drdp  Niflunga  Atli's  conduct  is  attributed  to 
revenge  for  the  death  of  Brynhildr,  while  in  Volsunga  Saga  it  is 
ascribed  to  his  lust  for  SigurSr's  gold.  But  in  the  poems  them- 
selves no  real  explanation  is  given,  and  the  connection  between 
this  part  of  the  story  and  that  relating  to  SigurSr  is  scarcely 
more  than  a  personal  one — viz.  that  GuSrvin,  Gunnarr  and  Hogni 
figure  in  both.  This  however  is  a  phenomenon  for  which  parallels 
are  to  be  found  in  other  heroic  stories,  e.g.  those  of  Beowulf  and 
Weland.  It  is  now  held — and  doubtless  rightly — by  the  majority 
of  scholars  that  the  unity  of  interest  imparted  to  the  Nibelungen- 
lied by  the  motif  of  Kriemhild's  revenge  is  a  later  improvement 
on  the  somewhat  disconnected  story  given  in  the  Edda.  For 
our  present  purpose  however  the  question  is  immaterial,  since  it 
is  not  contended  that  this  part  of  the  story  is  of  mythical  origin. 

In  spite  of  the  discrepancies  noted  above  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  two  versions  contain  a  remarkable  number  of  identical 
features  in  this  part  of  the  story — a  fact  which  renders  all  the 
more  striking  the  very  slight  amount  of  agreement  in  the  part 
dealing  with  the  hero's  early  adventures.  Unless  all  analogies 
are  misleading  the  conclusion  to  which  we  are  driven  is  that  the 
original  story  began  more  or  less  where  the  Nibelungenlied 
begins,  and  that  the  hero's  youthful  adventures  are  later  accre- 
tions, such  as  we  see  gathering  round  the  childhood  or  ancestry 
of  other  heroes,  e.g.  Biarki  (cf  p.  120).  We  may  add  also 
the  cases  of  StarkaSr,  Hagen  in  Kudrun  and  perhaps  Witege 
(cf.  p.  135).  They  appear  to  be  derived,  in  part  at  least,  from 
folk-tales.  One  of  these — affecting  probably  only  the  Norse 
version — may  be  identified  with  the  Scandinavian  story  of 
Svipdagr  and  MengloS  (cf  p.  12),  a  variety  perhaps  of  that 
of  the  Sleeping  Beauty.      Another  is  that  of  the  forest  dwarf 


148  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS    [CHAP. 

who  forges  or  preserves  a  magical  sword.  We  may  note  that  in 
ThitJreks  Saga  the  smith  is  called  Mimir,  a  name  which  recalls 
Saxo's  Mimingus  (cf.  p.  133)'.  The  story  of  the  treasure-guarding 
dragon  may  also  be  included  in  this  category,  though  strictly 
perhaps  it  belongs  rather  to  popular  belief  than  to  folk-tale. 
From  the  fact  that  some  of  these  elements  are  common  to  both 
versions  we  may  probably  infer  that  the  process  of  accretion 
had  begun  before  the  story  reached  the  North.  Yet  there  do 
seem  to  be  some  indications  of  a  reflex  influence^ — from  the 
North  or  some  region  exposed  to  Northern  influence — upon  the 
development  of  the  story  in  Germany. 

In  addition  to  folk-tales  we  must  take  into  consideration 
also  a  tendency  which  is  often  associated  with  them — the  desire 
to  account  for  an  obscure  name.  This  seems  to  be  the  most 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  names  Nibelung  and  Nibelunge  in 
the  first  part  of  the  German  epic  and  Nybling  in  the  ballad — all 
denoting  the  original  owners  of  the  treasure.  We  have  seen 
that  in  the  Norse  version,  as  well  as  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
Nibelungenlied,  Niflimgar  means  the  Burgundians.  May  we 
not  suppose  that  it  was  really  a  dynastic  name^  like  Scyldungas, 
Uffingas,  Merewioingas}  In  that  case  of  course  hodd  Nijlmiga 
{hort  der  Nibelunge)  ought  to  mean  the  family  treasure  of  the 
Burgundian  kings.  But  is  it  quite  certain  that  AtlakviSa  does 
not  use  it  in  this  sense .''  That  it  is  identified  with  Fdfnir's 
treasure  in  later  authorities  may  be  due  to  subsequent  German 
influence.  As  for  the  fact  that  the  name  Nibelmige  is  used  for 
the  Burgundians  only  in  the  second  half  of  the  German  epic, 
may  not  this  spring  from  some  stylistic  peculiarities  of  the 
'common  foundation'?  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that 
the  latter  was  all  the  work  of  one  author  or  even  of  one 
generation. 

In  dealing  with  questions  such  as  these  we  cannot  hope  to 
get  beyond  a  reasonable  hypothesis,  since  the  paucity  of  common 

1  It  seems  likely  that  Mimir  was  the  dwarf's  original  name  and  that  Saxo  has 
given  him  a  name  which  properly  belonged  to  his  sword ;  cf.  the  phrase  Hoddmimis 
holt  (VafSr.  45),  etc. 

*  E.g.  the  name  Schilbung  and  the  references  to  Norway.  The  story  of  Sigemund 
and  the  dragon  also  belongs  to  a  maritime  region. 

3  Cf.  Skaldsk.  42  :  "  Gunnarr  and  Hogni  are  called  Niflungar  and  Giukungar." 


VII]  MYTHICAL   ELEMENTS   IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS  149 

features  between  the  two  versions  admits  of  few  definite  con- 
clusions. But  from  the  time  when  the  hero  arrives  at  the 
Burgundian  court  the  case  is  quite  different.  In  spite  of  certain 
discrepancies  there  is  no  difficulty  in  determining  the  main  out- 
line of  the  story.  Even  in  the  most  important  point  of  all — the 
true  cause  of  the  hero's  death — the  two  versions  are  really  in  full 
agreement.  Gutthormr  does  the  deed  in  one  version,  Hagen  in 
the  other;  but  in  both  alike  it  arises  out  of  the  bitter  resentment 
cherished  by  Brynhildr,  owing  to  the  deception  which  has  been 
practised  upon  her.  We  have  seen  that  this  motif  is  incompat- 
ible with  the  current  mythological  interpretation  of  the  story. 
But  more  than  this,  it  is  plainly  not  a  motif  derived  from 
mythology  at  all,  but  from  real  life. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  Brynhildr  and  Hogni  of 
the  Norse  version  are  in  the  nature  of  character-studies.  Both 
appeal  to  our  sympathies,  though  we  do  not  approve  of  the 
actions  which  they  commit  or  allow.  Here  we  are  in  a  region 
of  thought  as  alien  as  possible  to  that  of  the  folk-tale.  But  it  is 
also  alien  to  that  period  of  thought,  which  was  most  open  to  the 
influence  of  folk-tales,  the  period  which  we  have  called  Stage  III 
in  the  history  of  German  poetry.  In  such  a  period  the  person 
who  destroyed  the  hero  must  necessarily  be  a  villain  as  black  as 
Hell.  Between  the  instigator  of  the  deed  and  the  perpetrator, 
who  by  this  time  was  Hagen — whether  this  was  so  originally 
or  not  is  immaterial — the  choice  was  made,  not  unnaturally  in 
the  circumstances,  in  favour  of  the  latter,  while  the  former  was 
allowed,  awkwardly  enough,  to  drop  out  of  the  story.  Thus  the 
peculiarities  of  the  German  version  may  be  explained  quite 
naturally  as  modifications  of  an  earlier  form  similar  to  the  other 
— modifications  necessitated  by  the  conditions  under  which 
heroic  poetry  was  preserved  in  Germany.  The  effect  produced 
is  somewhat  similar  to  that  which  would  be  obtained  by  con- 
verting a  modern  problem  play  into  a  popular  melodrama. 

The  conclusion  then  to  which  we  are  brought  is  that  the 
supposed  traces  of  myth,  so  far  as  they  have  any  foundation  at 
all,  are  due  to  late  accretions  to  the  story,  while  the  central 
motif  in  both  versions  alike  is  by  no  means  of  a  mythical 
character,   but   essentially  human.      Consequently  the   story  of 


I50       MYTHICAL  ELEMENTS  IN  THE  HEROIC  POEMS    [CHAP.  VII 

SigurtJr  stands  quite  on  a  line  with  the  other  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age.  Most  of  them  contain  elements  which  may  be 
interpreted  as  mythical ;  but  these  elements  are  always  most 
prominent  in  the  latest  forms  of  the  story.  It  must  not  escape 
notice  that  those  scholars  who  most  strongly  uphold  the  mythical 
interpretation  base  their  arguments  chiefly  on  such  works  as  the 
Seyfridslied  and  ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern.  The  explanation  is 
that  myth  is  a  growth  which  requires  time  to  develop.  Even 
Beowulf  is  no  real  exception  to  the  general  rule,  for  in  the  latter 
part  the  hero  is  probably  confused  with  a  namesake  whose  story 
may  have  been  of  considerable  antiquity,  while  the  only  character 
in  the  poem  who  is  quite  clearly  of  mythical  origin  is  the  first 
ancestor  of  the  Danish  royal  family^ 

^  Cf.  Schiitte,  Oldsagn  om  Godtjod,  pp.  35 — 38,  where  it  is  well  pointed  out  that 
all  the  clearest  cases  of  myth  in  early  Teutonic  records  belong  to  stories  dealing  with 
the  origin  of  nations  or  dynasties.  "Den  eneste  udtrykkelige  Myte,  der  udenfor 
specielt  religLefse  G^remal  har  vseret  episk  frugtbar  i  Folkevandringstiden  er  Ophavs- 
myten." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   USE    OF    FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS. 

The  question  how  far  the  use  of  fiction  was  permitted  in 
heroic  poetry  is  of  course  one  to  which  we  cannot  possibly  hope 
to  give  a  definite  answer.  All  poetry  which  deserves  the  name 
claims  to  do  something  more  than  provide  a  bare  record  of  facts. 
According  to  the  ancient  definition^  its  proper  function  is  to 
express  the  universal  rather  than  the  particular — what  may 
happen  or  may  have  happened  rather  than  what  has  happened. 
Some  freedom  of  play  for  the  imagination  is  therefore  essential. 
These  remarks  hold  good  for  early  Teutonic  poetry  just  as  much 
as  for  Greek.  If  we  could  recover  the  poems  recited  in  Attila's 
presence  (cf.  p.  84)  we  should  doubtless  find  that  they  contained 
far  more  than  a  mere  statement  of  facts.  In  the  works  which 
have  come  down  to  us  however  the  degree  to  which  freedom  is 
allowed  to  the  imagination  varies  very  greatly  from  case  to  case. 
Thus  in  the  poem  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh  it  is  restricted 
within  comparatively  narrow  limits,  while  in  the  almost  con- 
temporaneous Hakonarmal  the  historical  fact  on  which  the  poem 
is  based  is  very  largely  obscured  by  a  wholly  fictitious  narrative. 
We  may  naturally  expect  that  the  authors  of  heroic  poems 
likewise  differed  in  the  treatment  of  their  subjects,  though  not 
necessarily  to  the  same  degree. 

As  an  instance  of  a  poem  which  obviously  contains  a  large 
amount  of  fiction  we  can  hardly  do  better  than  take  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Widsith.     The  greater  part  of  this  poem  consists,  as  we 

^  Aristotle,  Poet,  ix:  6  7ap  iffropiKbs  kuI  6  ■n-onjTr)S...Si.a<pipov(Ti.v...Ti^  rbv  fiiv  t6, 
yefd/ieva  X^'yen',  rbv  di  ola  Slv  y^voiro.  dib  Kal  (piXoaocfxhrepov  Kai  crirovSaibTepov  iroiTjffis 
IffToplas  iarlv  rj  i^v  yap  iroiri<ni  fiaWov  to.  KaddXov,  7}  5'  Iffropia  to.  Kad   iKaarov  \iyei. 


152  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

have  seen,  of  a  speech  by  a  minstrel  enumerating  the  various 
peoples  and  princes  with  whom  he  was  acquainted.  Amongst 
others  he  states  that  he  had  visited  the  Gothic  king  Eormenric 
(who  died  before  375),  the  Burgundian  king  Guthhere  (who  died 
about  437)  and  the  Langobardic  king  Aelfwine  (who  died  about 
572).  Now  it  is  commonly  held  that  the  poem  is  of  composite 
formation,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  additions  have  been 
made  to  it  from  time  to  time.  This  will  account  for  statements 
such  as  those  given  above  and,  though  it  does  not  prevent  them 
from  being  fictitious,  it  may  enable  us  to  form  some  idea  as  to 
how  fiction  was  used.  Poets  of  the  seventh  century  probably 
possessed  no  chronological  tables,  and  consequently  they  may 
not  have  been  aware  that  the  foreign  princes  of  whom  they  were 
speaking  belonged  to  quite  different  ages.  Yet  without  such 
knowledge  the  visits  of  the  minstrel  may  clearly  be  placed 
among  the  '  things  which  may  have  happened.'  What  these 
poets  certainly  did  know  was  that  Eormenric  was  a  prominent 
figure  in  some  traditional  stories,  Guthhere  in  others.  It  did 
no  violence  to  the  story  (/jlv0o^)  itself  to  bring  an  anonymous 
character  into  contact  both  with  Eormenric  and  Guthhere, 
although  doubtless  no  one  would  have  done  this  while  either 
of  the  two  was  alive  or  indeed  for  some  time  after  their  death. 
But  we  must  not  in  such  cases  apply  the  principle  that,  since  A 
comes  into  contact  with  both  B  and  C,  therefore  B  may  come 
into  contact  with  C — and  conclude  from  it  that  poets  of  the 
seventh  century  thought  it  right  to  bring  Eormenric  and 
Guthhere  together  in  the  same  story.  That  is  a  more  advanced 
stage  and  one  for  which  we  have  no  satisfactory  evidence  in 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry^ 

Now,  if  we  turn  to  the  Old  Norse  poems,  which  date  of  course 
from  a  much  later  period,  we  certainly  find  this  stage  reached. 
Here  GuSrun,  the  sister  of  Gunnarr  (Guthhere),  is  represented  as 
the  mother  of  Svanhildr,  the  wife  of  lormunrekr  (Eormenric),  as 
well  as  of  HamSir  and  Sorli  who  attacked  that  king.  It  is  to 
be  observed  that  there  is  no  hint  of  a  connection  between  this 

^  In  Wids.,  V.  112  ff.  we  find  a  list  of  Gothic  heroes  belonging  to  various  ages 
introduced  by  the  expression  innweorud  Earmanrices  ('Eormenric's  household-troop'); 
but  this  expression  need  not  be  interpreted  literally  with  reference  to  the  whole  list. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  153 

story  and  that  of  the  Burguridian  family  except  in  Norse  litera- 
ture. Even  here  GuSrun  is  the  sole  connecting  link  between  the 
two  stories,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  confusion  is 
due  to  a  mistaken  identification  of  two  different  women.  In  the 
account  of  lormunrekr  given  by  Saxo,  who  apparently  knows 
nothing  of  the  Norse  version  of  the  story  of  Sigur?5r,  GuSrun  is 
the  name  given  not  indeed  to  the  mother  of  Hamt5ir  and  Sorli 
but  to  a  sorceress  consulted  by  them.  If  the  wife  of  SigurtJr  had 
originally  the  same  name  the  difficulty  would  be  capable  of 
explanation  ;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  evidence  for 
believing  that  she  was  originally  called  Grimhildr  (Kriemhilt)  is 
by  no  means  of  a  conclusive  character.  For  the  identification 
of  persons  bearing  the  same  name  we  may  compare  the  con- 
fusion which  pervades  Scandinavian  tradition  in  regard  to  the 
various  kings  called  FroSi^ 

In  other  cases  where  we  find  two  stories  which  seem  to  be 
wholly  irreconcilable  with  one  another,  the  difficulty  can  be 
traced  to  the  misinterpretation  of  an  epithet.  Thus  the  re- 
lationships and  adventures  of  the  Swedish  kings  mentioned  in 
Beowulf  differ  a  good  deal  from  what  is  recorded  of  the  same 
persons  in  Norse  literature.  In  Beowulf  the  Swedish  king 
Ongentheow  has  two  sons  Onela  and  Ohthere,  the  former  of 
whom  is  married  to  a  sister  of  the  Danish  kings  Hrothgar  and 
Halgal  Strife  breaks  out  between  Onela  and  his  two  nephews, 
Eanmund  and  Eadgils,  the  sons  of  Ohthere  (who  is  perhaps  dead) ; 
Eanmund  is  slain,  but  Eadgils  with  the  help  of  Beowulf  succeeds 
in  defeating  and  killing  his  uncle  and  gaining  for  himself  the 
throne.  In  Norse  tradition  ASils  (Eadgils)  is  the  son  and 
successor  of  Ottarr  (Ohthere),  but  the  grandfather  is  called  Egill 
and  there  is  no  mention  of  Eanmund.  ASils  again  is  married  to 
Yrsa,  who  is  both  the  wife  and  daughter  of  Helgi  (Halga) — 
which  is  hardly  compatible  with  the  account  given  in  Beowulf. 
He  engages  in  war  with  a  king  Ali  (Onela)  whom  he  defeats 
and  kills  with  the  help  of  Biarki  (Beowulf)  and  other  warriors 

^  Frotho  I  and  Frotho  III  were  no  doubt  originally  identical;  but  the  confusion 
extends  also  (especially  in  Skioldunga  Saga)  to  Frotho  IV  (the  Froda  of  Beowulf), 
who  cannot  reasonably  be  connected  with  the  others  (cf.  p.  124,  note). 

*  The  MS.  here  (v.  62)  is  defective,  but  no  other  interpretation  is  probable. 


154  FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

sent  to  him  by  his  stepson  Hrolfr  Kraki.  But  Ali  is  said  to  be 
a  Norwegian,  and  there  is  no  hint  of  any  relationship  on  his 
part  to  either  the  Swedish  or  the  Danish  royal  family. 

In  this  story  it  seems  clear  that  the  Norse  tradition  has  been 
led  astray  by  a  misinterpretation  of  the  expression  hinn  Upplenzki 
('  the  man  of  the  Uplands'),  which  is  applied  to  Ali.  There  was 
a  district  called  Upplond  in  Norway,  but  it  was  also  the  name 
of  the  Swedish  province  in  which  the  capital  (Upsala)  was 
situated.  Since,  according  to  Beowulf,  Onela  was  the  actual 
king  of  the  Swedes,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  the  latter 
to  which  the  title  originally  referred.  The  erroneous  identifi- 
cation with  the  Norwegian  district — natural  enough  in  Norse 
tradition — led  to  the  idea  that  Ali  was  an  invader,  and  hence  to 
further  dislocations  in  the  story. 

In  the  group  of  stories  which  cluster  round  Dietrich  von  Bern 
we  find  a  number  of  unhistorical  situations,  which  may  largely 
be  due  to  similar  mistakes  rather  than  to  deliberate  invention. 
Thus  when  Dietrich  appears  at  Etzel's  court,  as  in  all  German 
authorities,  including  ThiSreks  Saga  af  Bern,  it  is  probable  that 
the  hero  has  been  confused  with  his  father  (Theodemir),  who, 
as  we  know  from  Jordanes,  was  really  subject  to  Attila.  This 
situation  cannot  be  traced  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  while  in  Old 
Norse  literature  (apart  from  ThiSreks  Saga)  it  is  limited  to  GuSrii- 
narkviSa  IIP  and  the  prose  introduction  to  GuSrunarkviSa  II, 
which  is  believed  to  be  derived  from  the  other  poem.  The 
association  of  Dietrich  with  Siegfried  occurs  only  in  ThiSreks 
Saga  and  some  of  the  later  German  poems,  which  seem  to  invent 
combinations  quite  freely ""'. 

But  a  much  larger  number  of  authorities,  including  the  Annals 
of  Quedlinburg,  bring  Dietrich  into  connection  with  Ermanrich 
and  the  early  Gothic  hero  Wittich  ;  and  this  combination  is 
believed  to  be  of  much  greater  antiquity,  as  the  names  Theodric 
and  Widia  are  associated  also  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem 
Waldhere.      Here  we  are  confronted  with  a  question  of  great 

^  The  MS.  once  has  ThiotSmar,  as  against  two  examples  of  ThiotSrekr  in  the  verses 
and  one  in  the  introduction.  Is  it  really  impossible  that  the  name  has  been  altered 
by  a  scribe  familiar  with  ThiSreks  Saga?    Cf.  Jonsson,  Oldn.  Litteraturs  Historie,  i  295. 

"^  This  tendency  is  doubtless  due  largely  to  the  influence  of  romantic  poetry. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  155 

difficulty.  The  association  of  Theodric  and  Eormenric  is  un- 
known to  all  the  early  Scandinavian  authorities,  and  even  in 
Germany  it  cannot  be  traced  back  beyond  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century;  in  the  old  Hildebrandslied  Dietrich's  enemy  is  called 
Otachar,  i.e.  Odoacer.  Further,  apart  from  the  passage  in 
Waldhere,  there  is  little  or  no  decisive  evidence  for  a  knowledge 
of  the  story  of  Dietrich  von  Bern  in  England^;  for  the  statement 
in  Deor  that  Theodric  possessed  the  Maeringa  burg  for  thirty 
years  may  just  as  probably  be  applied  to  the  exile  of  Wolfdietrich 
with  Berchtung  of  Meranl  Now  Dietrich  and  Wolfdietrich  must 
be  confused  to  some  extent  in  German  tradition,  since  they  are 
both  credited  with  an  exile  of  thirty  years.  Perhaps  this  con- 
fusion goes  deeper  than  is  generally  recognised.  The  true 
explanation  may  be  that  a  considerable  portion  of  Wolfdietrich's 
story  has  been  transferred  to  his  nafnesake.  I  cannot  admit 
that  the  identification  of  Wolfdietrich  with  the  Prankish  king 
Theodberht  is  anything  more  than  a  very  doubtful  hypothesis  ; 
he  may  really  have  been  an  early  Gothic  prince^  Certainly  the 
name  was  extremely  common  in  that  nation,  for  we  meet  with 
four  Gothic  kings  called  Theodric  within  half  a  century  of  one 
another. 

So  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  stories  which  have  been 
distorted — apparently  in  quite  late  times — either  by  mistaken 
identifications  or  by  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  some  title 
or  incident.  The  lapse  of  time  in  itself  will  account  for  some 
of  these  changes,  especially  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  influence  of 
Stage  III  (cf.  p.  94  ff.),  through  which  the  stories  have  passed  both 
in  Germany  and  in  the  North.  Fiction  of  a  type  however, 
especially  the  tendency  towards  combination,  is  certainly  not 

^  Prof.  Brand],  Grundriss,  H  953,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Bernician 
king  Ida  is  said  to  have  had  two  sons  called  Theodric  and  Theodhere.  But  is  not  the 
date  rather  early?  The  occurrence  of  the  name  Sigesteb  in  the  council  of  Ecgberht, 
king  of  Wessex  (Birch,  395),  is  perhaps  stronger  evidence.  The  name  Oniuluug 
which  is  found  more  than  a  century  earlier  (Birch,  76,  116)  scarcely  necessitates 
acquaintance  with  the  story  of  Dietrich  von  Bern. 

2  The  case  would  be  different  if  it  could  be  proved  that  the  person  described  as 
skati  Marika  (Maringa)  in  the  inscription  of  Rok  was  Dietrich  von  Bern. 

'  It  is  worth  noting  that  in  Widsith,  v.  115,  Seafola  and  Theodric  (i.e.  Saben  and 
Wolfdietrich)  appear  among  the  Gothic  heroes. 


156  FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

wanting.  In  the  medieval  German  poems  indeed  it  is  widely 
used  and  on  a  scale  far  more  ambitious  than  what  we  have 
observed  in  Widsith.  Here  however  we  have  to  take  into 
account  the  influence  of  romantic  poetry.  The  nature  of  the 
use  of  fiction  in  the  North  is  not  so  clear.  If  it  could  be  proved 
that  such  stories  as  those  of  Oddriin  and  the  ordeal  of  GuSrun 
originated  in  the  North  we  should  certainly  have  to  grant  that 
it  was  of  a  fairly  advanced  type. 

Now  we  must  consider  certain  cases  which  seem  to  have 
originated  in  much  earlier  times.  As  an  instance  we  may  take 
the  Norse  story  that  Atli  was  murdered  by  GuSriin.  Now  this 
story  conflicts  with  what  appear  to  be  the  true  facts  in  two 
distinct  points  :  (i)  that  Attila  was  murdered  at  all ;  (ii)  that  the 
person  who  was  present  with  him  when  he  died  was  anyone 
whom  we  can  identify  with  GuSriin.  The  story  that  Attila  was 
murdered  by  a  woman  is,  as  we  have  seen,  one  of  great  antiquity; 
but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  this  woman  was  Guc5run.  It  is 
true  that  Norse  and  German  tradition  agree  in  stating  that 
Attila  married  a  sister  of  Guthhere.  This  is  a  statement  which 
cannot  be  proved,  though  there  is  nothing  intrinsically  improb- 
able in  such  a  marriage.  But  both  traditions  represent  Attila 
and  his  Burgundian  wife  as  married  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
both  speak  of  their  children.  Yet  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
according  to  the  original  story  Attila  was  murdered  by  his  bride 
(Ildico)  on  the  night  of  the  wedding.  Hence  we  must  surely 
trace  the  origin  of  the  Norse  story  to  a  combination  between 
two  much  earlier  traditions:  (i)  that  Attila  married  a  sister  of 
Guthhere  ;  (2)  that  Attila  was  murdered  by  his  wife.  In  view 
of  the  story  of  Guthhere's  death — which  is  common  to  both 
traditions  and  undoubtedly  ancient — it  required  but  little  poetic 
imagination  to  identify  the  two  women  and  to  represent  the 
murder  as  an  act  of  vengeance.  I  see  no  ground  for  supposing 
that  this  combination  took  place  before  the  Viking  Age.  The 
other  story  is  of  course  much  older ;  but  the  evidence  seems  to 
me  to  point  to  an  origin  in  common  report  rather  than  in  poetic 
fiction. 

The  story  of  HamSir  and  Sorli  is  a  somewhat  different  case. 
Here  again,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Guthhere's  sister  was  drawn 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC    POEMS  1 57 

into  the  story  only  in  the  Norse  version  and  probably  quite  late. 
But  even  before  this  time  it  contained  features  which  cannot 
be  regarded  as  historical.  In  the  Danish  (Saxo's)  version  also 
Svanhildr  appears  as  the  wife  of  lormunrekr ;  but  there  is  no 
satisfactory  evidence  for  this  except  in  the  North,  and  it  is 
clearly  contrary  to  Jordanes'  account.  Again,  the  North 
German  form  of  the  story^  agreed  with  the  Northern  versions 
in  stating  that  the  king  lost  both  his  hands  and  both  his  feet  in 
the  encounter.  Consequently  this  feature  may  be  regarded  as 
at  least  comparatively  ancient ;  but  it  seems  not  to  be  known  to 
Jordanes.  As  in  the  last  case,  therefore,  we  can  trace  the  gradual 
development  of  the  story  more  or  less  clearly.  In  its  earliest 
known  form,  as  given  by  Jordanes,  Svanhildr  is  said  to  have 
been  the  wife  of  a  man  (apparently  the  prince  of  a  dependent 
tribe)  who  deserted  Eormenric  (perhaps  by  joining  the  Huns). 
To  punish  his  disloyalty  the  king  had  her  tied  to  wild  horses 
and  thus  torn  to  pieces.  In  an  attempt  to  avenge  this  outrage 
her  brothers  gave  him  a  serious  wound,  which  was  partly  the 
cause  of  his  death^.  In  the  last  point  Jordanes  may  have 
been  trying  to  combine  the  tradition  with  another  account  of 
Eormenric's  death  which  he  knew  from  historical  sources. 
Otherwise  the  story  contains  nothing  incredible'*.  Yet  the 
element  of  fiction  was  probably  present  from  the  beginning. 
In  the  earlier  stages  its  influence  may  be  detected  at  least  in 
the  elaboration  of  the  incident  and  in  exaggeration  of  its  effects, 
whereas  in  later  times  it  shows  itself  in  the  invention  of  relation- 
ships and  in  false  combinations. 

^  This  version  (represented  by  the  Ann.  Quedl.,  cf.  p.  37,  note),  like  the  Norse, 
added  a  third  brother,  though  he  bears  a  different  name.  But  the  person  killed, 
whose  name  is  not  given,  is  said  to  have  been  the  father  of  the  brothers,  not  their  sister. 

^  Hermanaricus  rex  Gothorum...de  Hunorutn . .  .adtientu  dutn  cogitat,  Rosomonoruni 
gens  infida^  quae  tunc  inter  alias  illi  famulatum  exkibebat,  tali  eum  nanciscitur  occa- 
sione  decipere'.  dum  enim  quandam  mulierem,  Siinildam  nomine,  ex  gente  memorata, 
pro  mariti  fraudulento  discessu  rex  furore  commotus  equis  ferocibus  inligatam  incitatis- 
que  cursibus  per  diuersa  diuelli  praecepisset,  fratres  eius  Sarus  et  Ammius  germanae 
obitum  uindicantes,  Her^nanarici  latus  ferro  petierunt ;  quo  uulnere  saucius,  aegratn 
uitam  corporis  imbecillitate  contraxit...  inter  haec  Hermanaricus  tarn  uulneris  dolorem, 
quam  etiam  Hunorutn  incursiones  non  ferens . . .defunctus  est  (cap.  24). 

**  The  Prankish  queen  Brunhild  was  put  to  death  in  a  similar  way  in  the  year  613. 
We  may  also  compare  the  Thuringian  atrocities  described  by  Gregory  of  Tours  (iii  7). 


158  FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

Next  we  will  take  the  story  of  Beowulfs  death,  which  has 
the  great  advantage  of  being  preserved  in  an  early  form.  This 
story  may  be  regarded  in  a  sense  as  pure  fiction.  Strictly 
speaking  however  it  consists  of  at  least  three  distinct  elements : 
(i)  Beowulf's  encounter  with  the  dragon,  (ii)  the  hero's  funeral, 
(iii)  incidental  references  to  the  past  history  of  the  Geatas.  The 
last  element  is  in  part,  and  probably  to  a  very  large  extent, 
founded  on  fact ;  so  we  will  confine  our  attention  to  the  other 
two.  The  account  of  the  hero's  funeral  is  a  good  illustration 
of  Aristotle's  dictum  as  to  the  true  function  of  poetry — to 
express  the  universal  rather  than  the  particular.  We  have  no 
reason  for  supposing  that  the  poet  had  any  information  regarding 
Beowulfs  real  funeral.  The  description  which  he  composed  is 
that  of  such  a  funeral  as  might  reasonably  be  expected  for  a 
man  of  Beowulfs  rank  and  reputation.  But  the  same  remark 
is  largely  true  also  of  the  first  element.  Grant  that  the  latter 
part  of  Beowulf's  career  was  really  unknown  and  that,  through 
confusion  with  an  earlier  hero,  it  had  come  to  be  said  that  he 
perished  in  an  encounter  with  a  dragon — nearly  all  the  rest^  can 
be  attributed  to  the  same  faculty  for  elaboration  which  we  find 
in  the  funeral  scene.  More  imagination  perhaps  was  required  in 
this  case  ;  but  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  our  author  was  the 
first  to  describe  an  encounter  of  this  kind.  Far  more  probably  he 
was  working  upon  a  theme  which  in  his  time  was  already  well  worn. 

We  have  now  seen  that  fiction  in  early  times  shows  itself 
especially  in  the  way  of  elaboration,  or  perhaps  we  may  say  in 
the  structure  of  the  storyl  The  subject  itself  (the  fx.v6o<i)  may 
be  based  upon  fact  or  upon  common  report  or  rumour  which 
was  clearly  false  or  even  totally  incredible,  as  in  the  last  instance. 
But  I  know  of  no  story,  dealing  with  historical  characters,  which 
can  be  shown  to  be  the  product  of  deliberate  and  conscious  in- 
vention. We  have  still  however  to  consider  the  most  important 
question  of  all.  Did  the  use  of  fiction  include  the  invention  of 
characters  ? 

1  The  chief  exception  is  the  part  played  by  Wiglaf ;  possibly  also  the  incident  of 
the  cowardly  knights. 

2  17  Tuv  TTpayfidruv  ava-Tajis  (Aristotle,  Poei.  VI  9). 


VIIlJ  FICTION    IN   THE   HEROIC   POEMS  1 59 

It  is  not  safe  to  assume  this.  We  know  that  some  of  the 
characters  are  historical  in  most  of  the  heroic  stories.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  not  obvious  that  a  single  one  of  the  characters 
mentioned  in  the  primary  authorities  is  fictitious^  This  being 
so  it  is  unreasonable  to  take  the  view  that  characters  should  be 
regarded  as  fictitious,  unless  they  can  be  proved  to  be  historicaP. 
On  the  contrary,  until  the  use  of  fictitious  characters  is  proved 
there  is  a  decided  presumption  in  favour  of  believing  any  given 
character  to  be  historical — unless  of  course  his  name  or  some 
other  special  circumstance  gives  clear  ground  for  suspicion. 

Wiglaf  is  a  character  known  to  us  only  in  connection  with 
the  story  of  Beowulf  and  the  dragon.  Consequently  he  may 
be  regarded  with  a  certain  amount  of  suspicion.  But  in  one 
passage  it  is  stated  that  his  father,  Weoxtan,  had  served  under 
the  Swedish  king  Onela  and  slain  Eanmund,  the  brother  of 
Eadgils.  Now  in  the  Kalfsvisa  (cf  p.  20)  we  find  a  Vesteinn 
mentioned  among  those  who  accompanied  Ali  (Onela)  to  the 
'  ice,'  i.e.  to  the  battle  on  the  frozen  lake  Vener,  in  which  that 
king  lost  his  life.  This  can  hardly  be  a  different  person.  But 
if  we  grant  the  identity  chronological  considerations  render  it 
highly  improbable  that  he  is  a  fictitious  character. 

A  somewhat  different  case  is  presented  by  another  of  the 
characters  which  figure  in  Beowulf,  namely  Unferth,  the  Danish 
king's  '  spokesman.'  The  name  does  not  occur  elsewhere  in 
English  works,  and  it  is  of  an  unusual,  though  by  no  means 
unknown,  typel     According  to  the  current  explanation  name 

^  For  the  case  of  Widsith  see  p.  56  f.  Supernatural  beings,  such  as  Grendel,  and 
mythical  personages  of  the  past,  such  as  Scyld,  cannot  fairly  be  regarded  as  excep- 
tions, since  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  they  were  invented  by  the  poet  himself.  They 
figure  largely  in  skaldic  poems  of  the  Viking  Age  (e.g.  Hakonarmal)  which  probably 
never  introduce  fictitious  contemporary  characters.  On  the  other  hand  some  of  the 
characters  in  the  Edda  poems  may  have  been  invented  in  the  North. 

^  This  must  be  emphasized  because  one  constantly  finds  theories  of  fictitious  origin 
introduced  with  some  sentence  such  as  the  following :  '  It  has  not  yet  been  proved  that 
this  story  has  any  historical  foundation.'  Such  an  attitude  seems  to  me  not  only 
unreasonable  but  wrong  in  principle. 

3  Cf.  Unwona,  the  name  of  a  bishop  of  Leicester  who  died  about  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century,  and  Unwifie  {Unwenes,  Gen.),  the  name  of  Eastgota's  son  (Wids. 
114).  The  name  Unfrid  itself  occurs  in  Germany  during  the  eighth  and  ninth 
centuries. 


l6o  FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

and  character  are  alike  fictitious,  the  former  being  framed  to 
express  the  man's  malevolent  disposition.  He  is  said  (vv.  587  f , 
ii67f.)  to  have  killed  his  brothers,  and  on  Beowulf's  arrival  he 
soon  proceeds  to  wrangle  with  him'.  But  against  this  stands 
the  fact  that  his  father  is  called  Ecglaf,  an  ordinary  unsymbolical 
name,  while  his  quarrel  with  Beowulf  is  afterwards  amicably 
settled.  It  seems  to  me  therefore  that  the  hypothesis  is  at 
best  uncertain.  We  may  note  that  Hrothgar's  other  retainers 
(Wulfgar,  Aeschere,  Yrmenlaf)  bear  names  which  betray  no 
special  significance. 

A  somewhat  similar  interpretation,  though  on  a  more 
ambitious  scale,  is  applied  to  the  story  of  HamSir  and  Sorlil 
The  name  Siinilda  (for  Sonahildi  or  Sonihilds)  is  supposed  to 
have  been  chosen  for  Eormenric's  victim  in  order  to  express 
the  fact  that  her  death  was  an  'expiation'  (O.  High  Germ. 
siiona)  of  the  offence  committed  by  her  husband,  while  HamSir 
and  Sorli  themselves  have  got  their  names  from  their  armour 
(O.  Norse  hamr,  A.-S.  hama,  etc.  ;  Goth,  sarwa,  A.-S.  seg-rii). 
Now  an  interpretation  of  this  kind  deserves  careful  consideration 
when  it  provides  a  reasonable  and  more  or  less  simple  expla- 
nation of  the  names  involved  ;  but  not  otherwise.  In  this  case 
it  is  held,  contrary  to  all  analogies,  that  the  name  Hant&ir  (for 
Hama-\ius^)  is  extended  from  an  earlier  Gothic  form  Hamj'is 
(Jordanes'  Ammiiis).  But  even  then  the  etymology  is  hardly 
rendered  any  more  probable;  for  ham-  by  itself  can  only  mean 
'  dress,'  '  covering.'  It  is  only  when  compounded  with  words 
meaning  '  war '  (as  in  A.-S.  gu^-hama)  that  it  can  be  used  in 
the  sense  of  '  mail-coat.'  Again,  Sorli  is  regarded — and  this  is 
probably  correct — as  a  diminutive  of  Sams,  which  is  held  to 
represent  Goth,  sarws,  though  no  such  word  is  known  (in  any 
Teutonic  language)  except  as  a  proper  name.    What  is  important 

'  Prof.  Olrik  {Danmarks  Heliedigtning,  p.  25  ff.)  suggests  further  that  he  was  the 
instigator  of  a  quarrel  between  Hrothwulf  and  Hrothgar  or  his  sons.  But  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  his  interpretation  of  vv.  1 166  ff.,  ingenious  as  it  undouljtedly  is,  goes 
a  good  deal  beyond  what  the  passage  actually  warrants. 

2  Cf.  Jiriczek,  Deutsche  HelcUnsagcn,  I  63  f. ,  Sijmons,  Grundriss.  Ill'-'  683. 

3  The  true  form  is  probably  Hami-.  It  is  surely  far  more  probable  that  Ammius 
is  a  shortened  (hypocoristic)  form  from  the  compound  name  (cf.  A.-S.  Hemma,  Hetnmi). 
But  in  that  case  of  course  we  shall  have  to  conclude  that  the  name  had  been  familiar  for 
some  time  before  it  came  to  Jordanes'  knowledge. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  l6l 

to  notice  however  is  that  a  Gothic  prince  of  this  name  was 
fighting  in  Italy  in  the  year  405,  i.e.  Httle  more  than  thirty 
years  after  Eormenric's  death.  Lastly,  we  may  note  that  there 
appears  to  be  no  satisfactory  evidence  for  regarding  Svan-  (in 
Svanhildr)  as  a  transformation  ('  Umformung')  of  Son-^.  Such 
a  change  would  be  intelligible  enough  if  the  name  had  become 
known  through  a  document  written  in  Latin  letters ;  but  that 
is  a  hypothesis  which  we  need  not  discuss.  As  the  evidence 
stands,  considering  the  extremely  corrupt  state  of  the  proper 
names  given  by  Jordanes,  it  is  far  more  probable  that  his  form 
has  lost  an  -«-,  than  that  the  Northern  name  has  been  changed. 
The  conclusion  therefore  to  which  we  are  brought  is  that, 
whether  the  story  be  fictitious  or  not,  its  interpretation  must 
be  considered  without  regard  to  such  etymological  speculations 
as  these I 

I  am  far  from  denying  of  course  that  the  etymological 
interpretation  is  applicable  in  its  proper  sphere.  We  have  a 
reasonably  safe  instance  in  the  name  Widsith  (cf.  p.  44),  as 
well  as  in  the  case  of  characters  derived  from  folk-tale  or  myth. 
In  particular  we  have  the  eponymous  ancestors  of  families  and 
even  nations.  But  these  are  not  characters  invented  by  the 
poet  himself.  Further  they  are  always  referred  to  a  more  or 
less  distant  past,  and  their  occurrence  in  heroic  poetry  is  not 
very  common. 

Next  we  will  take  the  stories  of  Waldhere  and  SigurSr. 
Here  again  the  etymological  interpretation  is  often  brought 
forward,  especially  in  connection  with  the  women's  names ;  but 
on  the  whole  it  is  of  minor  importance.  Now  we  have  seen 
that  several  of  the  chief  characters,  Guthhere,  Hagena  and 
Attila,  are  common  to  both  these  stories.  There  is  no  question 
of  course  that  Guthhere  and  Attila  are  historical  persons ;  but 

^  No  argument  can  be  based  upon  the  name  Suanailta  which  is  found  in  a  docu- 
ment at  St  Gall  dating  from  786  (in  conjunction  with  other  names  which  show 
a  knowledge  of  the  story  of  Eormenric),  for  it  may  contain  either  swan-  or  son-.  It  is 
admitted  that  the  name  Swanahilt  was  in  use. 

'^  With  how  much  greater  plausibility  could  the  name  Eormenric  be  accounted 
for!  Had  it  not  been  for  the  incidental  reference  to  this  king  in  Ammianus 
Marcellinus'  history,  nothing  could  possibly  have  saved  him  from  being  regarded 
as  a  purely  fictitious  personage. 


l62  FICTION    IN    THE    HEROIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

for  Hagena  this  cannot  be  proved.  If  he  is  fictitious,  then  one 
of  the  two  stories  necessarily  presupposes  the  other.  But  it  is 
by  no  means  clear  to  which  of  them  we  should  assign  the 
priority.  There  is  no  valid  reason  for  doubting  that  both  of 
them  go  back  to  the  Heroic  Age. 

The  story  of  Waldhere  contains  no  feature  which  can  be 
regarded  as  intrinsically  improbable  if  allowance  be  made  firstly 
for  poetic  elaboration,  and  secondly  for  the  influence  of  Stage  III 
(cf.  p.  94  fif.).  To  the  first  we  may  perhaps  assign  the  account 
of  the  single  combats  ;  to  the  second  probably  the  somewhat 
grotesque  conclusion  of  the  last  fight,  as  given  by  Ekkehard, 
and  certainly  the  discrepancy  which  prevails  in  regard  to  the 
hero's  origin.  Ekkehard^  says  that  his  father  (Alpharius)  was 
king  of  Aquitaine,  while  the  medieval  German  poems  speak 
both  of  Spanie  (Spain)  and  Lengers  (Langres)  as  his  home. 
Now  the  name  Aquitani  cannot  be  taken  from  an  old  native 
poem,  and  the  same  remark  is  probably  true  of  Spanie.  More- 
over, if  we  were  to  suppose  that  the  hero  belonged  to  either 
of  these  regions  we  should  have  to  conclude  that  he  was  a 
Visigoth.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  conclusion  is  generally 
accepted  ;  but  it  involves,  obviously  enough,  many  difficulties. 
Langres  however  is  scarcely  open  to  any  such  objection,  and  it 
further  has  the  advantage  of  proximity  to  Chalon-sur-Saone, 
which  according  to  Ekkehard  was  the  home  of  Hiltgund.  These 
districts  must  have  been  occupied  at  some  time  by  settlers  from 
the  lower  Rhine,  as  appears  from  the  names  Pagus  Attoariorum 
and  Pagus  Amauorum,  the  former  of  which  lies  directly  between 
Chalon  and  Langres.  We  have  no  definite  evidence  as  to  when 
the  occupation  took  place,  but  probably  it  was  considerably 
anterior  to  the  time  of  Clovis^  Small  Teutonic  communities 
of  this  kind  were  doubtless  too  insignificant  to  be  mentioned 
in  the  scanty  chronicles  of  that  age ;  but  there  is  nothing 
unlikely  in  the  story  that  children  belonging  to  their  princely 
families  were  given  as  hostages  to  the  Huns. 

^  In  Ekkehard's  case  the  influence  of  Stage  in  is  supplemented  or  amended  by 
erudition.  The  national  names  which  he  gives  {Franci,  Burgundia,  etc.)  are  accommo- 
dated to  the  political  divisions  of  his  own  time. 

^  Cf.  Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und  die  Nachbarstdmme,  p.  582  ff.,  where  a  much 
earlier  date  is  suggested. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  163 

The  case  of  SigurSr  must  be  considered  independently  of 
the  hero's  youthful  adventures,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
probably  to  be  regarded  as  later  accretions  to  the  story.  Hence 
it  is  practically  only  in  connection  with  the  Burgundian  royal 
house  that  the  hero  is  known  \  and  as  soon  as  we  lose  sight 
of  this  we  drift  at  once  into  fruitless  speculation.  The  story 
represents  SigurSr  as  wealthy,  brave  and  personally  attractive  ; 
but  it  does  not  credit  him  with  achievements  which  changed  the 
destiny  of  nations.  Consequently  he  is  not  the  type  of  person 
whom  we  could  reasonably  expect  to  find  mentioned  in  the 
chronicles  of  that  period.  GuSriin  (Kriemhild)  again  is  unknown 
to  history;  we  do  not  even  know  that  Guthhere  had  a  sister. 
But  we  are  certainly  not  justified  in  assuming  either  that  such 
a  person  never  existed  or  that  she  could  not  have  married  a 
prince  from  the  Netherlands.  The  same  remarks,  mutatis 
mutandis,  apply  to  the  case  of  Brynhildr,  the  king's  wife. 

From  the  analysis  given  on  p.  146  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
original  story  appears  to  have  contained  two  features  which 
we  may  more  or  less  safely  regard  as  fictitious.  One  of  course 
is  the  disguise  ;  the  other  is  the  incident  of  the  ring.  In  the 
former  case  the  two  versions  differ — from  which  we  may  perhaps 
infer  that  this  feature  was  not  very  clearly  indicated  in  the 
original  form  of  the  story.  The  incident  of  the  ring  also  is 
introduced  in  quite  different  circumstances.  But  at  the  same 
time  it  is  really  the  central  feature  of  the  plot ;  for  the  ring  is 
the  instrument  chosen  to  bring  about  the  dvayvcopiatf — the 
recognition  by  Brynhildr  of  the  deception  which  has  been 
played  upon  her.  This  is  an  incident  such  as  we  frequently 
find  in  modern  works  of  fiction.  Yet  it  cannot  by  itself  be 
held  to  prove  the  fictitious  origin  either  of  the  characters  or 
of  the  story  as  a  whole.  It  may  equally  well  be  regarded  as 
a  device  for  explaining  the  subsequent  course  of  events,  in 
which  case  we  may  set  it  down  as  an  instance  of  poetic 
elaboration. 

Perhaps   the   objection    may    be    raised    that    the   sequel — 

1  It  is  impossible  here  to  enter  into  a  criticism  of  theories  such  as  those  brought 
forward  in  Boer's  Untersuchungen  iiber  den  Ursprung  und  die  Entwickelung  der 
Nibelungensage. 


164  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

Brynhildr's  resentment  against  SigurSr — necessarily  presupposes 
the  deception  practised  upon  her  and  that  this  deception  is  in 
both  versions  of  a  supernatural  character.  That  is  doubtless 
true  ;  but  the  explanation  is  not  far  to  seek.  Both  versions 
of  the  story  are  really  aware  of  a  previous  acquaintance  between 
SigurSr  and  Brynhildr.  In  the  Volsunga  Saga*  we  hear  of 
two  distinct  meetings,  firstly  when  he  awakens  her  from  the 
enchanted  sleep  (cap.  20  f )  and  again  when  he  woos  her 
on  his  visit  to  Heimir  (cap.  24).  If  Brynhildr  is  really  to  be 
identified  with  the  sleeping  valkyrie,  these  two  accounts  may 
be  regarded  as  variants  of  one  original  story.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Gn'pisspa  treats  the  two  events  separately,  like  the 
saga,  though  unlike  the  saga  it  does  not  identify  Brynhildr  with 
the  valkyrie.  Both  forms  of  the  story  however  agree  that  there 
had  been  some  meeting,  through  which  Brynhildr  had  been  led 
to  expect  marriage  with  SigurSr.  Now  the  Nibelungenlied  says 
nothing  of  a  relationship  of  this  kind.  But  at  the  same  time  it 
states  more  than  once — without  any  explanation — that  Siegfried 
had  known  Brunhild  and  her  dwelling.  There  is  some  ground 
therefore  for  suspecting  that  a  portion  of  the  story  has  been 
suppressed  or  lost  in  the  German  version.  If  so,  then  the 
explanation  of  the  supernatural  disguise  becomes  clear  enough. 
It  is  a  device,  doubtless  an  ancient  device^,  for  saving  the  hero's 
character.  Then  also  we  obtain  a  much  stronger  motive  for 
Brynhildr's  resentment.  It  was  a  case  not  merely  of  deception 
but  of  faithlessness.  There  is  nothing  incredible  in  that,  though 
in  real  life  the  dvayvcopiart^;  would  probably  come  about  in  a 
different  way. 

If  the  story  is  fictitious — i.e.  if  SigurSr,  Brynhildr,  Hogni, 
GuSrun  (Kriemhild)  and  all  their  doings  are  creations  of  fancy — 
one  conclusion  at  all  events  must,  I  think,  be  accepted.  Such  a 
story  must  be  the  product  of  the  brain  of  one  gifted  poet ;  it 

1  Owing  to  the  great  lacuna  in  the  MS.  of  the  Edda  (cf.  p.  13)  the  poems  which 
dealt  with  this  part  of  the  story  are  lost. 

*  The  story  may  have  come  to  the  North  in  two  different  forms,  one  of  which 
related  the  wooing  of  Brynhildr  by  SigurlSr,  while  the  other,  a  later  form,  contained 
the  incident  of  the  supernatural  disguise.  But  it  is  also  possible  that  even  the  original 
poem  or  poems  on  the  subject  dealt  with  this  incident,  though  without  altogether 
suppressing  the  previous  relations  between  Sigur^r  and  Brynhildr. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN   THE   HEROIC   POEMS  165 

cannot  be  the  result  of  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  lays  by  different 
authors.  The  analysis  shows  that  the  strength  of  the  story  lies 
chiefly  in  that  element  which  is  common  to  both  versions.  Here 
we  have  the  character-studies  of  Brynhildr  and  Hogni ;  for  even 
in  the  Nibelungenlied,  greatly  defaced  as  they  are,  the  original 
outlines  can  still  be  traced.  The  plot  too  conforms  to  the 
highest  standard  of  tragic  art.  It  has  complete  unity  in  itselP ; 
all  the  characters  are  more  or  less  sympathetic  ;  and  the  hero's 
downfall  is  due  not  to  any  villainy  {fjuo'xdif^pia)  on  his  own  part, 
but  to  a  great  error  {d/j,apTi,a).  Lastly,  whatever  view  may  be 
taken  as  to  the  fate  of  Brynhildr — a  point  in  which  the  versions 
differ — nothing  could  be  more  tragic  than  the  grief  of  GuSrun 
(Kriemhild),  which  is  common  to  both.  For  the  creation  of  a 
story  possessing  all  these  features — a  story  too  which  lived  in 
different  parts  of  Europe  for  many  centuries  under  somewhat 
unfavourable  conditions — we  must  surely  assume  not  only  a 
talented  poet  but  also  a  poem  of  some  considerable  length. 

I  do  not  of  course  regard  this  as  a  conclusive  argument  for 
believing  that  the  story  is  based  on  fact.  For  even  in  that  case 
its  presentation  would  require  epic  form,  as  well  as  poetic  talent. 
The  decision  between  the  two  interpretations  rests  ultimately 
on  the  question  whether  such  a  story  is  more  likely  to  have 
been  invented  or  drawn  from  life.  It  seems  probable  that  some 
of  the  characters  added  in  the  Norse  version  are  products  of 
fiction.  But  here  we  have  to  deal  with  a  period  removed  by 
many  ages  from  the  times  to  which  the  story  relates,  and  with 
a  people  who  had  developed  the  cultivation  of  imaginative 
poetry  to  a  very  high  standard.  The  origin  of  the  story  how- 
ever must  surely  date  from  a  period  when  Guthhere  and  the 
Burgundian  kingdom  on  the  Rhine  were  still  remembered.  In 
that  period  we  have  no  positive  evidence  for  the  composition 
of  fiction  at  all,  much  less  for  fiction  of  this  extremely  elaborate 
type.  On  the  other  hand  we  have  in  Procopius'  account  of 
Irmingisl  and  Radiger  (cf  p.  97  ff.),  written  within  six  or  seven 
years  of  the  events,  practically  all  the  materials  for  the  com- 
position of  an  epic  poem  on   a  very  similar  subject.     Indeed 

'  There  is  no  need  to  assume  that  the  story  of  Guthhere's  death  was  embodied  in 
the  same  poem,  though  the  two  were  doubtless  connected  from  quite  early  times. 


l66  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  [CH. 

they  can  hardly  be  called  merely  crude  materials  ;  for  certain 
incidents  are  depicted,  in  poetic  fashion,  rather  than  related, 
and  even  the  supernatural  element  is  not  wanting.  The  evidence 
of  this  passage  seems  to  me  to  tell  decidedly  in  favour  of  the 
view  that  the  story  of  SigurSr  is  founded  on  fact\ 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  examined  a  number 
of  heroic  stories  with  a  view  to  determining  how  and  to  what 
extent  fiction  has  been  employed  in  their  composition.  We 
have  seen  that  in  early  times  its  influence  was  shown  chiefly  in 
the  imaginative  presentation  or  structure  of  stories,  some  of 
which  were  founded  on  fact,  others  on  popular  report  or 
rumour  which  frequently  introduced  elements  from  folk-tales, 
occasionally  even  from  myth.  All  such  cases  however  may  be 
included  among  the  '  things  that  may  have  happened,'  if  we 
take  into  account  the  spirit  of  the  times.  On  the  other  hand 
for  the  composition  of  wholly  fictitious  narratives — narratives 
which  the  author  himself  knew  to  be  fictitious — and  more 
especially  for  the  deliberate  invention  of  characters  there  seems 
to  be  no  conclusive  evidence  in  the  stories  which  we  have 
considered  ;  and  I  am  not  aware  of  any  others  for  which  a 
stronger  case  could  be  made  out.  I  am  not  prepared  of  course 
to  state  dogmatically  that  such  fiction  was  not  known.  The 
case  is  far  too  uncertain  for  such  a  statement  as  that ;  there  is 
no  question  here  of  such  gross  improbabilities  as  those  which 
beset  the  hypothesis  of  '  rationalised  myth.'  One  is  certainly 
entitled  to  doubt  whether  all  the  characters  even  in  early 
poems,  such  as  Beowulf,  are  taken  from  life.  But  if  we  grant, 
as  I  think  we  must,  the  existence  of  earlier  poems  dealing  with 
the  Danish  court,  there  is  nothing  incredible  in  the  supposition. 

These  remarks  apply  of  course  only  to  poems  belonging  to 
Stage  I  and  Stage  il.  The  effect  of  Stage  III  was  to  disintegrate 
the  stories  and  to  introduce  unhistorical  elements  of  all  kinds. 

^  It  would  be  difficult  to  doubt  its  historical  origin  if  it  could  be  proved  that  the 
hero's  father  was  originally  identical  with  Sigemund  the  son  of  Waelse  (Volsungr), 
who  figures  in  Beowulf;  for  the  two  stories  are  almost  entirely  independent  of  each 
other  and  refer  to  quite  different  regions.  The  adventure  with  the  dragon,  which 
is  related  both  of  Sigur^r  and  Sigemund,  shows  that  they  were  connected  in  very 
early  times.     Still  I  know  no  real  proof  of  original  identity. 


VIII]  FICTION    IN    THE   HEROIC   POEMS  167 

Hence  in  poems  of  Stage  IV  we  meet  with  numerous  situations 
which  are  quite  incompatible  either  with  history  or  with  the 
older  forms  of  the  traditions.  In  the  same  period  we  find  also 
many  fictitious  characters,  not  only  in  the  German  poems,  where 
they  may  be  ascribed  to  romantic  influence,  but  also  probably 
in  those  of  the  North. 

There  is  one  type  of  fiction  which  we  have  not  taken  into 
account  in  our  discussion.  Various  scholars  from  time  to  time 
have  put  forward  the  theory  that  some  of  the  chief  charac- 
ters of  the  Heroic  Age  are  really  well-known  historical  persons 
under  fictitious  names.  Thus  SigurSr  has  been  identified  with 
a  number  of  famous  princes  from  Arminius  to  Sigebert.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  any  one  of  these  identifications  is  of  a 
nature  to  carry  conviction  ;  in  no  case  indeed  have  they  gained 
wide  acceptance.  But  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  an  error 
in  principle  underlies  the  whole  theory.  It  was  scarcely  through 
the  greatness  of  their  power,  much  less  through  the  effects  of 
their  achievements  on  after  generations,  that  the  characters  of 
the  Heroic  Age  acquired  celebrity ;  it  was  far  more  through  the 
impression  made  upon  their  neighbours  and  contemporaries  by 
their  magnificence  and  generosity,  by  their  personality,  and 
perhaps  above  all  by  the  adventures  and  vicissitudes  of  fortune 
which  fell  to  their  lot.  This  is  a  question  to  which  we  shall 
have  to  return  in  a  later  chapter. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF    GREECE. 

The  literary  records  of  the  Heroic  Age  of  Greece  resemble 
those  of  the  northern  Heroic  Age  in  several  respects.  Both 
literatures  alike  begin  with  heroic  poems  which,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  possess  many  common  characteristics.  Then,  at  a  much 
later  date,  we  find  in  both  literatures  a  new  series  of  narrative 
works  dealing  again  with  the  old  stories.  Lastly,  in  both  cases 
works  of  all  periods,  both  poetic  and  prose,  contain  frequent 
incidental  references  to  the  same  stories,  testifying  thereby  to 
their  popularity.  In  Greek  literature  indeed  such  references 
occur  more  frequently  than  in  that  of  the  Teutonic  peoples — a 
fact  doubtless  due  to  the  preservation  of  great  poems  of  the 
former  period,  which  at  an  early  date  came  to  be  regarded  as 
classics  or  something  more.  Among  the  northern  peoples,  as  we 
have  seen,  it  was  only  in  England  that  any  considerable  amount 
of  the  early  heroic  poetry  was  preserved ;  but  here  the  continuity 
of  literary  development  was  broken  through  political  causes,  and 
consequently  all  memory  of  the  Heroic  Age  was  practically 
lost. 

On  the  other  hand  we  have  no  evidence  for  the  Heroic  Age 
of  Greece  in  any  way  comparable  with  those  more  or  less  con- 
temporary Roman  works  which  enable  us  to  identify  many  of 
the  characters  and  incidents  of  the  northern  Heroic  Age.  In 
Greece  the  Heroic  Age  had  passed  away  long  before  the  date  of 
the  earliest  historical  documents  which  have  come  down  to  us ; 
while  though  inscriptions  of  a  remote  antiquity  are  still  in 
existence,  none  prior   to    the   seventh,  or   possibly  the   eighth 


CHAP.  IX]  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  169 

century,  have  as  yet  been  deciphered.  Further,  the  monuments 
of  the  surrounding  countries,  such  as  Egypt  or  Assyria,  make  no 
reference  to  Greece  beyond  the  occasional  bare  mention  of  a 
geographical  or  tribal  name.  Hence  it  comes  about  that  we 
cannot  with  certainty  pronounce  any  single  person  or  event  of 
the  Heroic  Age  to  be  historical.  All  that  it  has  been  possible  as 
yet  to  verify  is  the  existence  of  ancient  centres  of  civilisation  in 
certain  localities  which  figure  prominently  in  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age.  Archaeological  investigation  has  shown  that  some 
of  these  places  possessed  at  one  time  an  extraordinary  amount 
of  wealth  and  splendour,  though  within  the  historical  period 
they  were  inconsiderable  or  even  uninhabited. 

Of  the  early  heroic  poetry  very  little  has  come  down  to  us 
except  the  two  great  epics,  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  which 
between  them  contain  nearly  28,000  verses.  These  poems  are, 
strictly  speaking,  anonymous,  though  from  very  ancient  times, 
at  least  from  the  seventh  century,  the  name  Homer  has  been 
associated  with  them.  In  the  Alexandrian  age  there  were 
critics  who  believed  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  were  the  work  of 
different  authors  ;  but  it  is  only  within  modern  times  that  they 
have  been  considered  to  be  of  composite  formation.  At  present 
it  is  probably  the  most  prevalent  view  that  the  Iliad  was  formed 
gradually  in  the  course  of  the  ninth  century  and  that  it  attained 
substantially  its  present  form  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century.  The  Odyssey  is  generally  thought  to  be  a  later  work. 
Its  date  is  set  by  many  as  late  as  the  seventh  century,  though  it 
is  believed  to  have  used  and  probably  incorporated  earlier 
poems,  of  the  ninth  or  eighth  century.  There  are  however  still 
a  number  of  scholars  who  both  deny  the  composite  authorship  of 
the  poems  and  also  believe  them  to  be  of  greater  antiquity  than 
the  dates  here  given. 

Apart  from  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  the  only  early  heroic  poem 
which  has  come  down  to  us  is  the  Shield  of  Heracles,  a  work 
containing  480  verses  and  giving  an  account  of  the  single  combat 
between  Heracles  and  Cycnos.  It  has  been  attributed  to  Hesiod 
by  various  writers,  at  least  since  the  Alexandrian  period ;  indeed 
the  Argument  cites  Stesichoros  as  authority  for  this  belief     At 


I70  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

the  present  time  however  most  scholars  regard  it  as  the  work  of 
an  unknown  poet  of  the  seventh  century^ 

In  ancient  times  there  were  a  considerable  number  of  other 
early  epic  poems,  of  which  only  a  few  insignificant  fragments 
now  remain.  Some  of  these,  the  Cypria,  Aithiopis,  Little  Iliad 
('IXfa?  fMiKpa),  Iliu  Persis  and  Nostoi,  dealt  with  the  same  cycle 
of  story  as  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  They  seem  however  to  have 
been  of  much  smaller  compass  and  to  have  treated  their  subjects 
in  a  far  less  detailed  manner.  It  is  thought  by  many  that  the 
Cypria  was  composed  as  an  introduction  to  the  Iliad  and  the 
others  as  continuations  of  it — the  Nostoi  connecting  on  to  the 
Odyssey.  At  all  events  they  were  utilised  by  the  authors  of  the 
prose  kvkXoi,  in  Alexandrian  and  Roman  times,  for  the  purpose 
of  presenting  a  connected  account  of  the  whole  storyl 

The  authorship  of  these  poems  is  attributed  in  late  writings 
to  a  number  of  persons — Stasinos  of  Cyprus,  Arctinos  of  Miletos, 
Lesches  of  Lesbos  and  Agias  of  Troizen — of  whom  nothing 
definite  is  known,  but  who  are  believed  to  have  lived  either  in 
the  eighth  century  or  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh.  In  early 
times  however — indeed  probably  down  to  the  fourth  century — 
it  seems  to  have  been  the  general  belief  that  several,  possibly  all, 
of  them  were  by  Homer.  Herodotus  (n  117)  expresses  his  dis- 
belief in  Homer's  authorship  of  the  Cypria  ;  but  his  words  imply 
that  he  was  contesting  a  commonly  accepted  view.  On  the  other 
hand  Hellanicos^,  who  was  approximately  contemporary  with 
Herodotus,  is  said  to  have  attributed  the  Little  Iliad  (including 
possibly  the  Iliu  Persis)  not  to  Lesches  or  Arctinos  but  to  a  cer- 
tain Cinaithon  of  Lacedaemon,  who  is  said  to  have  lived  before 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  century.  Lastly  we  must  mention  the 
Telegoneia,  a  sequel  to  the  Odyssey,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
composed  by  Eugammon  of  Cyrene^  probably  in  the  sixth  century, 

^  Chiefly  because  the  description  of  the  shield  (vv.  139 — 320)  appears  to  corre- 
spond to  the  art  of  that  period. 

^  The  kijkXoi  embraced  much  more  than  the  story  of  Troy ;  cf.  PV.  v.  Christs 
Geschichte  d.  griech.  Litteratur^ ,  §  47  f.  The  relationship  of  these  works  to  the  poems 
may  be  compared  with  that  of  Volsunga  Saga  to  the  heroic  poems  of  the  Edda. 

^  Schol.  to  Euripides,  Troades,  822. 

*  Eusebius,  Chron.,  ad  Olymp.  53.  The  same  authority  however  also  attributes 
it  to  Cinaithon  of  Lacedaemon  (ad  Olymp.  4). 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  17 1 

Apart  from  the  series  of  poems  dealing  with  the  siege  of 
Troy  the  most  famous  of  the  early  epics  was  the  Thebais,  which 
gave  the  story  of  the  legendary  kings  of  Thebes.  This  poem 
was  attributed  to  Homer  by  Callinos  of  Ephesus^  who  lived  early 
in  the  seventh  century — which  probably  implies  that  it  was 
not  of  recent  composition  even  then.  It  had  a  sequel  called 
Epigonoi,  which  likewise  seems  to  have  been  attributed  to  Homer, 
though  Herodotus  (iv  32)  again  apparently  felt  doubtful.  In  ad- 
dition to  these  mention  may  be  made  of  the  Oidipodeia,  which 
also  dealt  with  the  Theban  story,  and  of  the  Oichalias  Halosis 
and  Phocais,  which  were  concerned  with  adventures  of  Heracles. 

All  the  poems  mentioned  above  were  probably  composed  in 
quite  early  times,  though  we  have  practically  no  trustworthy 
data  as  to  their  age  or  authorship.  A  number  of  other  epics 
bore  the  names  of  persons  who  were  attributed  to  the  eighth  or 
seventh  centuries,  such  as  Cinaithon  (see  above),  Eumelos  of 
Corinth  and  Asios  of  Samos.  These  however  seem  to  have  been 
rather  of  a  genealogical  than  heroic  character.  Peisandros  of 
Rhodes,  the  author  of  an  epic  on  Heracles,  is  also  referred, 
though  on  rather  doubtful  authority,  to  the  close  of  this  period. 
But  the  other  epic  poets  whose  names  have  survived  seem  to 
have  belonged  to  a  considerably  later  time.  The  didactic  epos 
began,  under  Hesiod,  apparently  before  the  end  of  the  eighth 
century,  while  early  in  the  following  century  there  arose  new 
types  of  poetry,  elegiac  and  iambic,  concerned  chiefly  with 
present  topics  and  the  personal  interests  of  the  poets,  and  seldom 
even  referring  to  the  Heroic  Age.  The  last  remark  is  true  also, 
though  to  a  less  extent,  of  the  early  lyric  poetry.  But  in  the 
early  part  of  the  sixth  century  Stesichoros  of  Himera  began  to 
utilise  it  for  presenting  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age  in  a  new  form. 
In  Pindar's  odes  too,  nearly  a  century  later,  the  allusions  to 
heroic  stories  are  very  frequent  and  often  of  considerable 
length.     One  ode  indeed  contains  almost  an  epos. 

In  the  fifth  century  however  the  Heroic  Age  figures  most 
prominently  in  Athenian  tragedy.  Of  the  seven  extant  plays  of 
Aeschylus  four  or  five^  deal  with  the  Heroic  Age  and  one  with 

^  Fragm.  6  (Bergk),  from  Pausanias,  ix  9.  5. 

^  The   Suppliants  is  hardly  to  be  reckoned  as  a  heroic  play.     It  is  referred  to 


1/2  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

contemporary  history,  while  the  last  is  concerned  exclusively 
with  supernatural  beings.  Of  the  two  later  dramatists,  Sophocles 
and  Euripides,  all  the  surviving  plays^  take  their  subjects  from 
the  Heroic  Age.  Further,  we  know  the  names  of  a  large  number 
of  lost  plays,  both  by  these  and  other  authors,  and  from  them  it 
appears  that  the  surviving  pieces  are  fairly  representative,  so  far 
as  choice  of  subjects  is  concerned.  During  the  same  period  we 
hear  of  a  few  epic  poets  whose  works  are  now  lost.  Some  of 
these,  such  as  Panyasis  and  Antimachos,  dealt  with  stories  of  the 
Heroic  Age  and  some,  as  Choirilos,  with  contemporary  history. 
About  two  centuries  later  heroic  epic  poetry  was  cultivated  at 
Alexandria,  especially  by  Apollonius  Rhodius. 

Among  incidental  references  to  the  Heroic  Age  one  of  the 
most  interesting  occurs  in  Hesiod's  Works  and  Days  (vv.  1 56 — 
170),  where  an  age  of  the  heroes*  who  fell  at  Thebes  and  Troy  is 
introduced  between  the  bronze  age  and  the  iron  age.    Herodotus' 

a  time  many  generations  before  the  siege  of  Troy  and  all  the  characters  appear  to  be 
personifications  of  nationalities.  Regarding  the  epic  Danais  little  information  seems 
to  be  obtainable. 

'  The  Ion  and  Bacchai  are  perhaps  rather  to  be  regarded  as  pre-heroic ;  the 
former  deals  with  a  story  which  apparently  belongs  to  the  same  type  as  Aeschylus' 
Suppliants. 

*  avrap  iirel  Kai  tovto  yivoi  /card  yaia  K<i\v\f/€v, 

avTis  ir    6.W0  rirapTOv  iirl  xdovi  irovKv^oTeLprj 

Zeus  KpovLdrjs  irolrjae  SiKaidrepov  Kai  dpeiop, 

avdpQiv  r)p<iuv  deiov  y^vos,  ot  KaXiovTai 

Tj/j-ldfoi,   ■n-poTdpT]  yevit)  /car'  direipova  yatav. 

Kai  Tovs  fxiv  TrdXe/xdi  re  KaK6s  Kai  (pvXoirn  alvT) 

Tovs  fiev  v(f>    iirTairv\(fi  Qt^/Stj,   Ka5/i7;f5t  yalr), 

CjKfcre  fw.pva/j.ei'ovs  /j.rjXui'  iveK    Oidnr68ao, 

Toiii  Si  Kai  fv  vri^aaLv   iiirep  fiiya  Xalrixa  6a\6.(i(nj% 

is  Tpolrjv  (l7a7d;i'  'EX^vt/s  ^veK  rjVKdfioio.  k.  t.  X. 
In  this  passage  the  word  ^pwj  seems  to  have  already  begun  to  acquire  its  later 
meaning,  viz.  a  distinguished  man  of  the  past  (generally  of  the  Heroic  Age)  who  was 
honoured  with  worship,  though  not  as  a  god.  For  such  worship  Teutonic  records 
naturally  furnish  few  parallels,  since  most  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  became  Christian  either 
during  the  Heroic  Age  itself  or  soon  after.  We  may  compare  however  what  Jordanes 
(cap.  13)  says  of  the  Goths:  proceres  suos,  quorum  quasi  fortuna  uincebant,  non 
puros  homines  sed  semideos,  id  est  Ansis,  uocauerunt.  In  Old  Norse  the  name  CEsir 
{*ansiz)  is  applied  only  to  the  gods  (Othin,  Thor,  etc.) ;  but  we  do  hear  occasionally 
of  worship  paid  to  heroes  of  the  Heroic  Age,  as  well  as  to  distinguished  persons  of 
later  times.  An  instance  of  the  former  (in  the  case  of  Hrolfr  Kraki)  occurs  in 
Yngl.  S.  4I. 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  173 

history  abounds  with  references  to  the  Heroic  Age,  and  even 
Thucydides  refers  to  it  not  unfrequently,  though  in  a  more 
critical  spirit.  In  later  times  we  have  to  notice  especially 
antiquarian  writers  such  as  Strabo  and  above  all  Pausanias. 
The  last-named  derived  his  information  very  largely  from  local 
tradition  and  consequently  the  stories  which  he  gives  may  often 
be  independent  of  the  poems. 

We  may  now  consider  briefly  the  chronological  aspect  of  the 
Greek  Heroic  Age.  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  a  passage 
in  Hesiod's  Works  and  Days  speaks  of  an  age  of  heroes  inter- 
mediate between  the  bronze  and  iron  ages,  and  that  it  further 
defines  these  heroes  as  those  who  fought  at  Thebes  and  Troy. 
To  the  latter  number  belong  no  doubt  the  various  characters  of 
the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  and  the  other  poems  (Cypria,  etc.)  which 
dealt  with  the  Trojan  cycle  of  legend,  while  the  deeds  of  the 
former  must  have  been  treated  in  the  Thebais  and  the  Epigonoi. 
In  the  surviving  Attic  dramas  which  deal  with  the  Heroic  Age 
the  distribution  of  subjects  is  as  follows.  Sixteen  plays  (three 
by  Aeschylus,  three  by  Sophocles  and  ten  by  Euripides,  including 
the  Cyclops  and  Rhesos)  treat  of  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  war  or 
their  children  ;  six  plays  (one  by  Aeschylus,  three  by  Sophocles 
and  two  by  Euripides)  deal  with  the  Theban  story  ;  and  six 
plays  (one  by  Sophocles  and  five  by  Euripides)  are  concerned 
with  the  doings  of  Heracles,  Theseus  or  lason.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  heroes  of  the  Theban  story  are  always  repre- 
sented as  belonging  to  the  generation  immediately  preceding 
that  of  the  heroes  of  Troy,  while  Heracles,  Theseus  and  lason 
are  all  loosely  connected  with  one  another  and  made  roughly 
contemporary  with  the  Theban  heroes.  The  remaining  three 
plays  (Aeschylus'  Suppliants  and  Euripides'  Ion  and  Bacchai), 
if  we  are  justified  in  regarding  them  as  heroic  at  all,  refer  to 
persons  much  farther  back  in  the  genealogies. 

It  appears  then  that  the  characters  who  figure  most  pro- 
minently in  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age  were,  with  few  exceptions, 
ascribed  to  a  period  covering  not  more  than  three  or  four  genera- 
tions. There  are,  it  is  true,  a  number  of  stories  referring  to 
much  earlier  generations — in   addition   to  those  treated  in  the 


174  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

three  plays  mentioned  above — but  they  seem  to  have  been 
distinctly  less  popular  than  the  others.  On  the  other  hand  there 
is  scarcely  any  reference  to  persons  later  than  the  children  of  the 
heroes  who  fought  at  Troy. 

With  the  evidence  at  our  disposal  it  is  impossible  to  fix  any 
absolute  dates  for  the  Heroic  Age.  All  that  we  can  say  is  that 
the  end  of  that  age  appears  to  coincide  with  the  movement  or 
series  of  movements,  traditionally  known  as  the  Return  of  the 
Heracleidai,  to  which  the  Dorian  states  in  the  Peloponnesos 
were  believed  to  owe  their  origin.  According  to  the  story,  the 
Return  took  place  in  the  second  generation  after  the  siege  of 
Troy,  and  the  grandsons  of  Agamemnon,  the  Achaean  leader  at 
the  siege,  were  killed  or  expelled  by  the  Dorians.  Certainly  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  scheme  of  tribal  or  political  geography 
presented  to  us  in  the  Homeric  poems  seems  to  show  no  trace 
either  of  Dorians  in  the  Peloponnesos  or  of  Ionic  settlements  in 
the  eastern  Aegean — another  series  of  movements  which  are  said 
to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  Dorian  conquest. 

The  great  majority  of  scholars  apparently  regard  the  story  of 
the  conquest  as  containing  at  least  a  nucleus  of  truth,  though  it 
refers  to  times  long  anterior  to  what  we  should  call  the  historical 
period.  The  ancients  themselves  dated  the  events  in  question 
back  to  the  twelfth  or  eleventh  century  (B.C.).  But  the  evidence 
on  which  their  conclusions  were  based  is  not  of  a  very  satisfactory 
character  and  will  require  careful  consideration. 

Before  entering  upon  this  question  it  will  be  convenient  to 
notice  briefly  the  scenes  of  the  stories  and  the  localities  and 
peoples  to  which  the  various  characters  belong.  The  scene  of 
the  Iliad  is  laid  in  the  north-west  corner  of  Asia  Minor,  a  short 
distance  south  of  the  Dardanelles.  But  the  stories  introduced 
incidentally  refer  for  the  most  part  to  places  on  the  mainland  of 
Greece,  less  frequently  to  localities  in  Asia  Minor  or  Thrace. 
The  distribution  of  the  principal  heroes  is  as  follows:  Agamem- 
non's territories,  according  to  the  Catalogue  of  Ships  (II.  II  569  fif.), 
lie  in  the  north-east  of  the  Peloponnesos,  including  the  north- 
western part  of  what  was  later  called  Argolis  and  at  least  the 
eastern  half  of  Achaia.     Elsewhere  (II.  IX   149  ff.,  291  ff.)   he 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  I75 

appears  to  have  possessions  in  Messenia.  His  brother,  Menelaos, 
rules  over  Sparta  and  other  places  in  Laconia.  Nestor's  kingdom 
is  on  the  western  side  of  the  Peloponnesos,  to  the  south  of  Elis. 
Idomeneus  belongs  to  Crete,  Achilles  to  southern  Thessaly 
(Phthiotis),  Aias,  the  son  of  Telamon,  to  Salamis,  his  namesake 
to  the  eastern  Locris,  Diomedes  to  the  eastern  and  southern 
parts  of  Argolis  and  Odysseus  to  the  Ionian  Isles,  It  must  not 
be  overlooked  that  most  of  these  districts  were  of  little  or  no 
political  importance  during  the  historical  period  and,  further,  that 
the  territories  of  the  kingdoms  appear  not  to  have  coincided  as  a 
rule  with  the  political  divisions  which  we  find  in  later  times. 

The  scene  of  the  Odyssey  is  laid  chiefly  in  the  Ionian  Isles, 
to  a  much  smaller  extent  in  the  Peloponnesos.  The  wanderings 
of  the  hero  himself  appear  to  lie  chiefly  in  regions  to  the  west  of 
Greece,  though  there  may  be  reminiscences  of  the  Black  Sea. 
Some  scholars  relegate  them  largely  or  altogether  to  the  realm 
of  fairyland.  Incidental  references  occur  to  Thesprotis  (Epeiros) 
and  the  Aegean,  as  well  as  to  more  distant  lands  such  as 
Egypt. 

Thebes  was  doubtless  the  scene  of  the  lost  Thebais  and 
Epigonoi.  The  story  of  Pelops  seems  to  have  been  connected 
chiefly  with  Elis  and  that  of  Perseus  with  Mycenae  and  Tiryns, 
while  Minos  belonged  to  Crete  and  Theseus  to  Athens.  lason's 
home  was  in  eastern  Thessaly,  but  his  story  is  largely  taken 
up  with  journeys  in  the  Black  Sea  and  other  distant  regions. 
Heracles'  adventures  are  spread  over  the  greater  part  of  Greece 
and  many  other  lands,  though  Boeotia  and  Malis  are  perhaps 
the  districts  most  prominent  in  his  story.  The  scene  of  the 
Shield  of  Heracles  is  laid  in  Phthiotis. 

It  appears  then  that  the  heroic  stories  are  distributed  over 
the  greater  part  of  the  ancient  Greek  world.  Certain  districts 
however  are  excepted,  and  to  these  special  attention  should  be 
given.  In  the  first  place  we  have  practically  no  reference  to 
Greek  cities  in  Italy  or  Sicily  or  to  heroes  belonging  to  them, 
though  we  do  hear  occasionally  of  travellers'  acquaintance  with 
these  countries.  More  important  is  the  absence  of  any  mention 
of  Greek  cities  in  Asia  Minor^  and  the  adjacent  islands,  except 

'  In  the  Nostoi  after  the  departure  from  Troy  some  of  the  Achaeans  (Calchas, 


176  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

those  off  the  coast  of  Caria.  The  legends  which  speak  of 
colonies  led  to  Lesbos  by  Penthilos  the  son  of  Orestes  or  to 
Miletos  and  elsewhere  by  the  sons  of  Codros  are  hardly  to  be 
reckoned  among  heroic  traditions.  The  names  indeed,  at  least 
in  the  first  case,  are  taken  from  this  source,  but  they  form  the 
subject  of  no  connected  story.  Miletos  is  mentioned  in  the 
Trojan  catalogue  (II.  n  868),  but  it  is  said  to  be  in  the  possession 
of  the  Carians.  To  Chios  there  is  only  a  geographical  reference 
(Od.  in  170  ff.),  and  though  Lesbos  is  mentioned  more  frequently 
its  inhabitants  are  treated  as  enemies  by  the  Achaeans.  The 
only  real  exceptions  are  the  southern  islands,  several  of  which, 
such  as  Rhodes  and  Cos,  send  contingents  to  Agamemnon's 
army.  Cyprus  too  seems  to  be  fairly  well  known  and  its  princes, 
though  they  take  no  part  in  the  expedition,  are  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  Achaeans — a  fact  which  renders  the  absence  of  reference 
to  the  Ionic  cities  all  the  more  striking.  In  Greece  itself  nearly 
every  district  has  a  story  connected  with  it.  Attica  however  is 
one  of  the  least  prominent  and  possesses  no  hero  of  much  note 
except  Theseus. 

For  the  tribal  distinctions  which  figure  so  prominently  in 
later  Greek  history  there  is  extremely  little  evidence  in  stories 
of  the  Heroic  Age.  The  name  AioXee?  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
Homeric  poems,  while  Awptee?  occurs  only  once,  as  the  name  of 
one  of  the  five  peoples  of  Crete,  and  'Idove^  once  as  that  of  a 
people  (perhaps  the  Athenians)  associated  with  the  Locrians 
and  Boeotians.  On  the  other  hand  the  most  frequently  used  of 
all  national  designations  is  'Ap^aiot,  a  name  which  in  later  times 
was  borne  only  by  the  inhabitants  of  two  comparatively  unim- 
portant districts,  Phthiotis  and  the  north  coast  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesos.  In  the  Homeric  poems  it  appears  to  be  a  collective  term 
for  the  inhabitants  of  Greece  and  the  surrounding  islands.  In 
the  same  sense  we  find  also  Aavaoi,  a  name  which  later  is  used 
only  in  archaistic  poetry.  'Apyeloi  and  "EXA.77j/e?  seem  properly 
to  be  geographical  terms,  though  the  former  occurs  frequently 
(the  latter  only  once',  in  the  form  IlaveXkr]v€<;)  as  a  synonym 

Leonteus  and  Polypoites)  were  made  to  arrive  at  Colophon.  The  story  of  Calchas' 
contest  with  Mopsos  perhaps  comes  from  the  same  source. 

1  Once  also,   together  with  'Axaioi   (II.  ii  684),  as  a  name  for  the  subjects  of 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1/7 

for  'Axaioi.  Names  of  peoples,  such  as  "A/Sayre?,  'ETretot, 
AiToyXoi,  are  of  course  frequently  used ;  but  they  denote  com- 
paratively small  sections  of  the  nation. 

Though  the  term  'A^acok  is  used  for  the  inhabitants  of 
Greece  collectively,  it  may  of  course  really  be  the  name  of  a 
tribe  or  people  which  was  regarded  as  dominant  at  the  time. 
At  all  events  in  Od.  XIX  176  we  find  the  Achaeans  mentioned 
as  merely  one  of  five  peoples  which  inhabit  Crete.  As  an  in- 
stance of  a  people  who  were  apparently  never  included  among 
the  Achaeans  we  may  take  the  Pelasgoi  mentioned  in  the  same 
passage.  Here  however  we  are  faced  with  a  question  of  nation- 
ality, for  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  Pelasgoi  of  his  own  time  as 
a  barbarous  people^  though  at  the  same  time  he  holds  that 
several  Greek  peoples,  especially  the  lonians  and  Athenians, 
were  sprung  from  them.  No  indication  is  given  in  the  Homeric 
poems  that  the  Pelasgoi  spoke  a  foreign  language ;  but  this 
remark  is  true  also  of  many  Asiatic  peoples,  including  the 
Trojans. 

On  the  question  of  Greek  nationality  there  is  unfortunately 
very  little  evidence  either  in  the  Homeric  poems  or  in  other 
stories  relating  to  the  Heroic  Age.  We  cannot  even  tell 
whether  the  population  of  the  Greek  mainland  was  believed 
to  be  homogeneous.  Only  in  the  case  of  Crete  is  detailed 
ethnographical  information  given.     In  a  passage  cited  above  we 

Achilles,  or  rather  Peleus.  'EXXds  is  used  sometimes  for  a  place  or  district  in  Peleus' 
kingdom,  sometimes  apparently  in  a  wider  sense. 

1  He  states  (l  57)  that  in  his  time  they  inhabited  Placia  and  Scylace,  on  the  south 
coast  of  the  Sea  of  Marmara,  and  KprjarQifa  Tr6Xiv,  probably  in  the  Chalcidian 
peninsula  (though  some  scholars  emend  this  name  to  Rpdruva,  i.e.  Cortona  in 
Tuscany).  Down  to  the  fifth  century  they  are  said  to  have  also  occupied  Lemnos 
and  Imbros  (iv  145,  v  26,  vi  138  fif.),  and  in  early  times  Samothrace  (u  51),  while 
their  name  was  preserved  at  Antandros,  in  the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion  (vn  42).  Later 
writers  speak  of  the  Pelasgoi  as  having  formerly  inhabited  many  other  regions.  Into 
the  difficult  problems  connected  with  this  name  we  need  not  enter  here ;  for  the  most 
recent  and  perhaps  fullest  discussion  of  the  subject  reference  may  be  made  to 
Prof  Myres'  paper  in  ihe/oitrn.  Hell.  St.  1907,  p.  i7off.  As  regards  the  etymology 
analogies  indicate  that  \\.i\a.ayoi.  represents  an  earlier  form  * Pelag-skoi.  If  this  is 
a  Greek  word  the  most  probable  meaning  is  '  people  of  the  sea '  (though  another 
explanation  has  been  proposed  ;  cf.  Kretschmer,  Glotta  I  16  f.).  But  it  may  really  be 
a  national  name  (cf.  ne\d7o;'es).  In  that  case  we  may  note  that  the  use  of  the  suffix 
•sko-  in  national  names  is  Indo-European,  though  not  Greek. 


1/8  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

are  told  that  this  island  contained  five  peoples,  namely  the 
Achaeans,  Eteocretes,  Cydones,  Dorians  and  Pelasgoi.  The  first 
and  fourth  of  these  are  well-known  sections  of  the  Greek  nation, 
but  we  have  no  satisfactory  evidence  as  to  the  nationality  of  the 
others.  Herodotus  (l  173)  says  that  the  Lycians  came  originally 
from  Crete  and  adds  that  the  whole  of  the  island  was  once 
possessed  by  barbarians.  Interesting  light  on  the  latter  state- 
ment has  been  thrown  by  the  recent  discovery  of  certain  inscrip- 
tions at  Praisos,  in  what  is  said  to  have  been  the  Eteocretan 
part  of  the  island.  These  inscriptions  are  written  in  forms  of 
the  Greek  alphabet  which  were  current  in  the  sixth  and  fourth 
centuries  (B.C.)  respectively,  but  the  language  is  not  Greek. 
Besides  these  numerous  inscriptions  dating  from  much  earlier 
times  have  been  found  at  Cnossos  and  elsewhere ;  but  they 
have  not  yet  been  deciphered.  All  that  can  be  said  at  present 
is  that  we  have  no  reason  for  discrediting  Herodotus'  statement. 
In  Greece  itself  we  have  not  such  clear  evidence  for  the 
prevalence  of  a  non-Greek  language.  Here  we  are  dependent 
on  somewhat  doubtful  inferences  from  place-names.  Yet  the 
majority  of  scholars  would  not  admit  that  the  language  was 
indigenous.  Indeed  the  tendency  at  present  is  to  believe  that 
Greece  and  the  Aegean  islands  were  originally  inhabited  by 
peoples  of  one  stock,  the  existence  of  which  can  be  traced  back 
in  Crete  for  many  thousands  of  years,  and  that  these  peoples 
were  ultimately  overwhelmed  and  absorbed — perhaps  in  the 
course  of  the  second  millennium — by  invaders  from  the  north. 
Asia  Minor  is  supposed  to  have  had  a  somewhat  similar  history. 
Originally  it  is  believed  to  have  been  occupied  by  various 
kindred  peoples,  of  which  the  most  prominent  were  the  Hittites 
of  Cappadocia.  Eventually — about  1200  B.C.  according  to  the 
most  recent  view* — there  took  place  a  great  irruption  of  Thraco- 
Phrygian  peoples  from  the  north-west,  who  became  dominant 
throughout  the  larger  part  of  the  peninsula  2. 

1  Meyer,  S.-B.  d.  Akad.  zu  Berlin,  1908,  p.  18. 

2  Into  the  linguistic  affinities  of  these  various  peoples  we  need  not  enter  here. 
It  will  be  sufficient  to  notice  that  the  Thracian  and  Phrygian  languages  are  commonly 
believed  to  have  belonged  to  the  eastern  division  of  the  Indo-European  group. 
Certainly  this  is  the  case  with  the  language  of  the  Armenians,  who  according  to 
Herodotus  (vii  73)  were  an  offshoot  (dTroi/cot)  of  the  Phrygians.     The  evidence  of  the 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1 79 

In  the  Iliad  the  forces  ranged  in  defence  of  Troy  are  drawn 
from  a  wide  area,  extending  from  the  Axios  (Vardar)  on  the 
west  to  Paphlagonia  on  the  east  and  Lycia  on  the  south.  The 
nationaUties  represented  seem  to  be  chiefly  of  Thraco-Phrygian 
stock,  though  a  few,  such  as  the  Lycians  and  perhaps  the 
Carians,  belong  to  the  indigenous  population.  On  the  other 
hand  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  any  of  the  peoples 
represented  in  Agamemnon's  army  were  of  other  than  Greek 
nationality.  The  story  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  one  of 
national  conflict.  Yet  it  cannot  be  said  that  this  feature  is  ever 
emphasised  in  the  poems  themselves,  although  the  point  of  view 
throughout  is  that  of  an  Achaean. 

For  local  or  tribal  patriotism  the  Homeric  poems  furnish  us 
with  little  or  no  evidence.  No  Greek  communities  and  few  even 
of  their  princes  are  described  otherwise  than  in  terms  of  respect. 
We  may  point  also  to  the  old  controversy  regarding  Homer's 
birthplace — a  controversy  which  owes  its  very  existence  to  the 
absence  of  any  local  patriotism  in  the  poems.  In  this  respect 
it  will  be  seen  that  Greek  heroic  poetry  agrees  with  Teutonic. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  consideration  of  the  chronological 
problem.  In  ancient  times,  especially  during  the  Alexandrian 
period,  various  attempts  were  made  to  calculate  the  exact  date 
of  the  siege  of  Troy.  Of  these  the  most  generally  accepted  was 
that  of  Eratosthenes,  which  was  based  on  the  length  of  the 
reigns  ascribed  to  the  kings  of  Sparta.  This  calculation  brought 
the  foundation  of  the  Dorian  kingdom  at  Sparta  to  the  year 
1104-3,  a-"d  eighty  years  were  added  to  obtain  the  date  of  the 
fall  of  Troy.  But  it  has  long  been  pointed  out  that  the  figures 
given  for  the  reigns  of  the  early  kings  are  so  greatly  above  the 
average  that   they  cannot    be   regarded    with    any  confidence. 

Phrygian  inscriptions  themselves  is  unfortunately  somewhat  ambiguous.  To  the  same 
eastern  division  belonged  the  ancient  lUyrian  languages,  if  the  present  dialects  of 
Albania  are  descended  from  them.  On  the  other  hand  the  languages  of  the  indigenous 
peoples  throughout  Asia  Minor  and  the  Aegean  area  are  commonly  believed  to  have  been 
non-Indo-European.  Yet  Prof.  Conway  {British  School  at  Athens,  Ann.  viii,  p.  141  ff.) 
holds  that  the  inscriptions  of  Praisos  belonged  to  a  language  of  this  group.  If  this  should 
turn  out  to  be  the  case  with  the  earlier  Cretan  inscriptions  current  views  as  to  the  early 
history  of  the  Indo-European  languages  would  require  considerable  modification. 


l8o  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

Thus  the  first  Olympiad  (B.C.  776-5)  was  made  to  coincide  with 
the  tenth  (or  eleventh)  year  of  Alcamenes  and  Theopompos. 
Alcamenes  was  the  ninth  in  succession  from  Eurysthenes  and 
Theopompos  the  eighth  from  Procles,  and  the  number  of  years 
ascribed  to  the  previous  reigns  amounts  on  the  average  to  over 
thirty-five  years  for  one  dynasty  and  over  thirty-nine  for  the 
other.  But  in  kingdoms  for  which  we  have  reliable  information 
extending  over  a  long  period  of  time  the  usual  average  length 
is  apparently  between  twenty  and  twenty-five  years^.  Hence, 
if  the  lists  of  kings  themselves  are  to  be  trusted — and  even  this 
is  very  doubtful  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  are  almost  identical 
with  the  genealogies — it  is  difificult  to  avoid  suspecting  that  the 
total  period  ascribed  to  their  reigns  collectively  is  more  than  a 
century  too  long. 

More  reliance  is  perhaps  to  be  placed  on  the  genealogies  of 
the  two  royal  families  given  by  Herodotus  (VH  204,  vni  131). 
Leonidas  (r.  488 — 480)  and  Leotychidas  (r.  491 — 469),  with 
whom  we  are  on  sure  historical  ground,  are  represented  as 
fifteenth  in  descent  from  Eurysthenes  and  Procles  respectively. 
According  to  all  analogies  therefore  we  should  expect  that  the 
two  latter  flourished  not  very  long  before  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century.  In  other  words  the  date  given  by  Eratosthenes  for 
the  '  Return  of  the  Heracleidai '  would  seem  to  be  from  a 
century  to  a  century  and  a  half  too  early.  A  very  reasonable 
explanation  of  the  difficulty  has  been  suggested  by  Prof  Meyer 
who  points  out  that  several  passages  in  Herodotus'  history  seem 
to  imply  the  reckoning  of  a  generation  at  forty  yearsl  Among 
the  figures  given  we  find  (n  145)  Heracles  dated  about  1330. 
Cleomenes,  his  descendant  in  the  twentieth  generation,  was  born 
about  530,  or  at  all  events  not  much  later.  For  Eurysthenes 
and  Procles,  in  the  fifth  generation  from  Heracles,  this  would 
give  about  11 30,  which  is  not  very  far  from  the  date  fixed  by 
Eratosthenes. 

^  For  England  from  its  unification  under  Alfred  the  Great  to  the  present  time  the 
average  is  about  twenty  years;  for  France  from  840  to  1793  it  is  between  twenty- 
three  and  twenty-four  years. 

■^  Forsch.  z.  alten  Geschichte,  p.  lyof.  The  reckoning  is  not  due  to  Herodotus 
himself  but  taken  over  by  him  from  an  earlier  writer.  Prof.  Meyer  suggests  as  its 
author  Hecataeus,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Cleomenes. 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  l8l 

It  is  to  be  remembered  in  the  first  place  that  the  date  fixed 
for  Eurysthenes  and  Procles  is  apparently  that  of  their  birth, 
and,  secondly,  that  Eratosthenes'  scheme  is  probably  only  a 
modification  of  a  previously  existing  system,  other  varieties  of 
which  are  quoted  by  Prof,  Meyer^  Indeed  it  would  not  require 
any  great  exercise  of  ingenuity  to  point  out  traces  of  a  more  or 
less  symmetrical  distribution  of  the  period  covered  by  the  reigns 
of  the  early  Spartan  kings'^  But,  apart  from  any  such  specu- 
lations, we  can  hardly  doubt,  in  the  light  of  Prof.  Meyer's 
showing,  that  the  date  for  Eurysthenes  and  Procles  is  derived 
ultimately  from  a  calculation  based  on  the  genealogies  rather 
than  from  any  contemporary  written  record  or  tradition.  The 
genealogies  themselves  of  course  may  represent  tradition,  so  far 
as  they  are  not  interpolated*,  but  they  point,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
a  much  later  date  than  that  which  we  have  been  discussing^  If 
we  substitute  32X  15  for  40  x  15,  starting  from  the  birth  of 
Cleomenes,  we  are  brought  to  about  the  year  1000.  That  must 
be  regarded  as  the  date  really  indicated  by  Spartan  tradition 
for  the  birth  of  Eurysthenes  and  Procles. 

We  may  now  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  genealogies  of  the 
other  Heraclid  families,  namely  those  of  Argos,  Messenia  and 
Corinth.  The  first  of  these  places  Pheidon  in  the  sixth  genera- 
tion, according  to  one  version,  in  the  ninth  according  to  another, 

1   Op.  cit.  p.  178  flf. 

^  Eratosthenes  reckons  nearly  320  years  from  the  accession  (birth)  of  Eurysthenes 
to  that  of  Alcamenes  in  the  ninth  generation,  while  the  reigns  of  the  father,  grand- 
father, great-grandfather  and  great-great-grandfather  of  the  latter  make  up  159  years. 
Sosibius,  who  reckoned  by  the  Eurypontid  dynasty,  appears  to  have  had  a  similar 
period  of  320  years  from  Procles  to  Theopompos,  although  his  dates  were  different 
from  those  of  Eratosthenes — 1 091/0  to  771/0  according  to  Prof.  Meyer  {op.  cit. 
p.  179  f.).  The  accession  of  Theopompos  was  equated  with  that  of  Alcamenes  by 
Eratosthenes.  Possibly  these  periods  were  originally  sub-divisions  of  a  longer  period 
of  640  years,  reckoned  from  the  fortieth  year  of  Cleomenes  (or  feeonidas?). 

^  Two  names  (Prytanis  and  Eunomos)  in  the  Eurypontid  list  are  generally 
regarded  with  doubt,  but  none  of  the  Agiad  names  is  really  of  a  suspicious  character. 
The  fact  that  Agis  and  Eurypon  are  not  the  first  names  in  the  genealogies  ought  not 
to  be  used  as  an  argument  against  the  trustworthiness  of  the  tradition.  In  many 
Teutonic  genealogies — e.g.  the  Gothic,  Frankish  (Merovingian),  Kentish,  East 
Anglian  and  Mercian — the  name  which  performs  patronymic  function  is  not  that 
which  stands  first  in  the  list. 

*  Prof.  Meyer's  view  is  not  that  the  chronologists  fixed  too  early  a  date  for  the 
Dorian  invasion,  but  that  the  early  parts  of  the  genealogies  themselves  are  unhistorical. 


1 82  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

from  Temenos,  the  uncle  of  Eurysthenes  and  Procles.  Unfor- 
tunately different  dates  are  assigned  for  Pheidon.  The  earliest, 
which  is  not  generally  accepted,  places  his  reign  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighth  century.  But  even  this,  taking  the  longer 
form  of  the  genealogy,  does  not  carry  us  appreciably  farther 
back  than  the  Agiad  list.  The  Corinthian  genealogy  places 
the  last  king,  who  is  said  to  have  been  killed  in  747,  in  the 
thirteenth  generation  from  Heracles.  This  would  agree  with 
the  longer  form  of  the  Argive  genealogy  ;  several  of  the  names 
however  are  generally  regarded  as  suspicious.  The  Messenian 
genealogy  is  materially  shorter. 

Apart  from  these  Dorian  genealogies  there  are  some  notices 
relating  to  the  ancestry  of  persons  belonging  to  other  parts  of 
Greece,  which  must  not  be  ignored.  Herodotus  (n  143)  states 
that  Hecataeus,  who  was  a  prominent  man  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century,  claimed  to  be  descended  in  the  sixteenth  (i.e. 
fifteenth)  generation  from  a  god.  This  probably  takes  us  back 
to  the  Heroic  Age,  when  divine  parentage  is  common,  whereas 
later  it  appears  to  be  almost,  if  not  entirely,  unknown^  Again, 
it  is  believed  that  the  genealogy  of  the  Philaidai  at  Athens, 
which  actually  survives,  though  only  in  a  corrupt  form^  placed 
Philaios,  the  son  of  Aias,  in  the  twelfth  generation  above 
Hippocleides,  who  was  archon  in  566.  Further,  according  to 
Pausanias  (l  11),  Tharypas,  king  of  the  Molossoi,  who  was 
born  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  claimed  to  be 
descended  in  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  generation  from  Pyrrhos 
the  son  of  Achilles.  It  will  be  seen  that,  though  these  genea- 
logies do  not  agree  exactly,  the  discrepancy  is  not  very  great. 
They  seem  to  indicate  the  existence  of  a  belief  that  persons  who 
flourished  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century  were  removed  by 
about  fifteen  generations  from  the  Heroic  Age. 

On  the  other  hand  Pindar  {Pyth.  IV  9  ff".)  in  an  ode  written 
in  466  and  addressed  to  Arcesilaos  IV,  king  of  Cyrene,  places  that 
king's  seventh  ancestor,   Battos   I,  in   the  sixteenth  generation 

^  Prof.  Meyer  {op.  cit.  p.  173  and  note)  cites  the  case  of  Telamon  the  son  of 
Poseidon,  ancestor  of  the  priests  of  Poseidon  at  Halicamassos,  whom  he  places  after 
the  Return  of  the  Heracleidai.  But  the  question  is  a  complicated  one.  The 
genealogy  cannot  be  used  for  our  purpose,  as  we  do  not  know  where  it  ends. 

2  Cf.  Tdpffer,  Attische  Genealogie,  p.  278  f.  ;  Meyer,  op.  cit.  p.  174,  note. 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1 83 

from  Euphemos  the  Argonaut,  a  contemporary  of  Heracles. 
This  exceeds  even  the  Agiad  reckoning,  for  Pleistarchos,  the 
representative  of  that  family  reigning  in  466,  was  only  in  the 
twenty-first  generation  from  Heracles.  From  the  other  non- 
Heraclid  genealogies  we  should  have  expected  that  the  number 
of  generations  to  Arcesilaos  would  be  about  what  is  recorded 
for  Battos  l\ 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  this  case,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  other  non-Heraclid  genealogies  are  shorter  than 
that  of  the  Agidai  by  at  least  three  generations — if  we  equate 
Philaios,  Pyrrhos  (Neoptolemos)  and  the  grandson  of  Hecataeus' 
god  with  Aristomachos  the  grandfather  of  Eurysthenes.  The 
dates  which  they  indicate  for  the  '  floruit '  of  these  persons  are 
in  no  case  earlier  than  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century.  As  to 
the  relative  value  of  the  two  traditions  we  have  nothing  to  guide 
us,  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  Greek  genealogical 
evidence  in  general.  Two  points  however  must  be  insisted  upon: 
(i)  that  the  calculations  of  scholars  of  the  Alexandrian  age,  or 
even  earlier  times,  are  not  to  be  interpreted  as  evidence  of 
tradition  ;  (ii)  that  the  evidence  of  tradition,  whatever  be  its 
value,  brings  the  end  of  the  Heroic  Age  at  least  towards  the 
close  of  the  eleventh  century. 

Apart  from  the  evidence  discussed  above,  unsatisfactory  as 
it  doubtless  is,  chronological  data  for  the  Heroic  Age  itself 
seem  to  be  entirely  wanting.  We  know  however  that  a  highly 
advanced  civilisation  flourished  in  the  Aegean  in  early  times, 
and  that  it  was  succeeded  by  a  long  period  in  which  both  art 
and  general  culture  were  at  a  very  low  ebb.  This  latter  period, 
which  is  commonly  known  as  'geometrical'  from  the  type  of 
art  which  prevailed  in  it,  lasted,  so  far  as  one  can  judge,  until  about 
the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  at  which  time  oriental  influence 
began  to  make  its  appearance.  The  '  orientalising '  period  again 
continued  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  classical  age.  It  is  a 
common  and  natural  hypothesis  to  equate  the  low-watermark 
of  culture  early  in  the  geometrical  period  with  the  generations 

^  Battos  I  is  believed  to  have  founded  Cyrene  about  630.  It  may  be  observed 
that  the  interval  between  that  date  and  466  is  surprisingly  short  for  the  lapse  of 
seven  generations. 


1 84  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

immediately  following  the  Dorian  conquest  of  the  Peloponnesos. 
But  unfortunately  we  cannot  thereby  obtain  any  certain  date 
for  the  latter,  since  Greece  appears  to  have  had  little  contact 
with  the  outside  world  during  the  geometrical  period. 

In  recent  years  some  advance  has  been  made  through  the 
operations  carried  out  by  the  British  School  at  Sparta,  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  important  site  for  our  purpose.  From  the 
stratification  of  the  deposits  Mr  Dawkins,  the  director,  has  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  earliest  temple  and  altar  at  the 
sanctuary  of  Artemis  Orthia  date  from  the  ninth  or  even  the 
tenth  century^  The  temple,  which  must  have  been  one  of  the 
earliest  known,  appears  to  have  been  a  narrow  and  unpretentious 
structure  of  crude  brick  and  timber.  Some  geometrical  sherds 
were  found  beneath  the  floor,  a  fact  which  shows  that  the 
sanctuary  had  been  in  use  somewhat  earlier.  If  the  sanctuary 
was  founded  at  the  beginning  of  the  Dorian  settlement  at  Sparta 
it  is  obvious  that  this  result  agrees  well  enough  with  the  date 
indicated  for  the  conquest  by  tradition.  No  relics  of  pre- 
geometrical  times  appear  to  have  been  found. 

When  we  turn  back  to  the  times  of  the  earlier  civilisation  it 
is  much  easier  to  establish  chronological  equations ;  for  the 
presence  of  Egyptian  objects  among  Aegean  remains  and  of 
Aegean  objects  or  representations  of  Aegean  objects  in  Egypt 
shows  that  there  was  frequent  communication  between  the  two 
areas.  Thus  there  is  little  doubt  that  certain  Cretan  remains 
date  from  periods  contemporaneous  with  the  twelfth  and  Hyksos 
dynasties.  Others  again  clearly  belong  to  the  period  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty — at  all  events  the  earlier  part  of  it.  As  to  the 
date  of  the  destruction  of  the  Cretan  palaces  opinions  still  differ 
considerably;  the  most  recent  statement  by  Dr  Evans  is  in 
favour  of  about  1350-.  But  this  catastrophe  did  not  bring  the 
Aegean  civilisation  to  an  end.  We  find  inscriptions  dating 
from  the  subsequent  period  (Late  Minoan  III)  apparently  quite 

^  British  School  at  Athens,  Ann.  xiv,  pp.  3,  18  f. 

^  Cf.  Hawes,  Crete  the  Fore-runner  of  Greece,  p.  18.  A  much  later  date  is  favoured 
by  Dr  Dorpfeld  {Ath.  Mittdlungen,  xxxil  602),  whose  views  on  Cretan  chronology 
differ  greatly  from  those  of  English  archaeologists.  To  this  question  we  shall  have  to 
refer  again  in  a  later  chapter. 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1 85 

similar  to  those  discovered  in  the  earher  stratum,  and  the 
various  artistic  types,  though  decadent,  show  no  breach  of  con- 
tinuity. Indeed  'Mycenean'  influence  seems  to  have  been  more 
widespread  (e.g.  in  Thessaly  and  Italy)  at  this  time  than  in  any 
earlier  period.  In  Egypt  vases  of  the  same  type  are  depicted 
in  the  wall-paintings  on  the  tomb  of  Rameses  III,  who  died 
about  II 70.  After  this  time  however  traces  of  Mycenean  influ- 
ence are  rarely  found  in  that  country. 

Within  the  last  few  years  it  has  come  to  be  noticed  that  the 
deposits  dating  from  the  last  Mycenean  period  fall  into  two 
well-marked  groups.  The  remarks  made  above,  as  to  the  art  of 
Late  Minoan  III  being  a  continuation  of  that  of  the  preceding 
period,  apply  properly  only  to  the  first  of  tj[iese  groups — repre- 
sented by  the  cemeteries  of  Zafer  Papoura  (Cnossos)  and 
Phaistos,  the  late  Mycenean  megaron  at  Hagia  Triada  (also 
in  Crete)  and  the  late  palace  at  Phylakopi  in  Melos.  Other 
deposits,  represented  by  the  tombs  found  at  Mouliana,  Milatos, 
Kavousi  and  Erganos  (all  in  Crete),  though  they  have  certain 
features  in  common  with  the  former  group,  yet  at  the  same  time 
show  a  number  of  characteristics  which  are  entirely  new.  Of 
these  the  most  important  are  the  practice  of  cremation  and  the 
use  of  fibulae  and  iron  weapons,  all  of  which  are  unknown  in  the 
Aegean  before  this  time.  From  a  careful  study  of  the  pottery 
found  in  these  deposits  Dr  D.  Mackenzie^  has  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  belongs  to  the  same  period  as  the  famous 
'  Warrior  Vase '  from  Mycenae.  This  again  is  obviously  con- 
temporary with  a  painted  stele,  likewise  representing  warriors, 
which  was  found  in  one  of  the  latest  graves  in  the  lower  town 
at  the  same  place.  Fibulae  also  were  found  here  in  the  same 
group  of  graves.  The  importance  of  these  observations  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  armature  of  the  warriors  depicted  on  the  vase  and 
the  stele  corresponds  in  all  essentials  to  what  is  described  in  the 
Homeric  poems.  This  had  already  been  pointed  out  by  Prof 
Ridgeway^;  but  many  scholars  have  attributed  both  objects  to 
a  much   later  period.     Now  however  in   view  of  the  sequence 

^  British  School  at  Athens,  Ann.  XIII,  p.  423  ff. 

2  Early  Age  of  Greece,  p.  317.     Representations  of  both  the  Vase  and  the  Stele 
are  given  in  the  same  work  (p.  3135.). 


1 86  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

which  Dr  Mackenzie  has  succeeded  in  tracing,  in  Cretan  pottery 
and  other  articles,  from  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the 
palaces  onwards,  it  appears  that  the  latter  view  can  hardly  be 
maintained.  Lastly,  Dr  Mackenzie  has  pointed  out  that  all  the 
above  deposits  differ  radically  from  those  of  the  strict  geo- 
metrical period  found  in  cemeteries  at  Cnossos  and  Courtes  and 
in  the  'beehive'  tomb  near  Kavousi  (all  in  Crete).  There  are 
clear  indications  that  all  the  latter  belong  to  a  subsequent  time. 

As  a  result  of  his  investigations  then  Dr  Mackenzie  has 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  three  well-marked  periods  can  be 
distinguished  in  Cretan  history,  after  the  destruction  of  the 
palaces.  But  further,  he  believes  that  each  of  these  periods 
coincides  with  a  new  settlement  in  the  island — the  true  geo- 
metrical period  with  the  Dorian  settlement,  the  '  sub-Mycenean ' 
with  that  of  the  Achaeans,  and  the  last  true  Mycenean  period 
(Late  Minoan  III)  with  a  settlement  of  Pelasgoi.  The  evidence 
of  the  deposits  found  at  Sparta  and  elsewhere  tends  distinctly 
to  favour  the  first  of  these  identifications.  For,  though  geo- 
metrical art  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Dorians,  it  may 
be  presumed  that  their  settlement  was  the  latest  of  those  which 
took  place  in  Crete.  Some  scholars  hold  that  they  came  there 
from  the  Peloponnesos,  while  others  place  their  settlement  in 
the  island  prior  to  the  invasion  of  the  peninsula — and  ancient 
authority  can  be  obtained  for  both  views.  But  in  either  case  it 
is  improbable  that  the  two  events  were  separated  by  a  long 
interval.  Again,  the  identification  of  the  second  or  sub-Mycenean 
period  with  that  of  Achaean  settlement  is  rendered  extremely 
probable  by  the  resemblance  which  deposits  of  this  period  show 
to  objects  and  customs  described  in  the  Homeric  poems,  e.g.  in 
regard  to  armature  and  the  use  of  fibulae  and  cremation.  In 
the  poems  the  Achaeans  are  clearly  represented  as  dominant 
even  in  Crete,  while  in  Greece  itself,  as  we  have  seen,  the  exist- 
ence of  other  nationalities  is  practically  ignored. 

In  regard  to  the  earliest  of  the  three  settlements  Dr  Mac- 
kenzie's theory  may  be  open  to  more  serious  question.  The 
ethnical  affinities  of  the  Pelasgoi  are  still  quite  obscure.  Again, 
although  new  types,  apparently  derived  from  the  mainland,  do 
occur  at  this  time,  the  break  of  continuity  with  the  preceding 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1 87 

age  does  not  seem  to  be  anything  like  so  marked  as  in  the 
subsequent  periods.  It  is  scarcely  impossible  that  the  destruction 
of  the  palaces  may  be  due  to  naval  warfare  or  piracy  on  a 
large  scale,  or  even  to  commotions  within  the  island  itself  For 
our  purpose  however  this  part  of  Dr  Mackenzie's  theory  is  of 
minor  importance^ 

In  other  respects  at  all  events  the  theory  seems  to  provide  a 
very  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  phenomena.  We  have  seen 
that  the  Spartan  evidence,  whether  traditional  or  archaeological, 
affords  no  justification  for  dating  the  Dorian  invasion  very 
long  before — or  after — 1000  B.C.  Now  we  find  very  good 
evidence  for  two  distinct  periods  of  culture  between  that  event 
and  the  destruction  of  the  Cretan  palaces,  which  took  place 
probably  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The  later  of  these  periods 
is  the  one  with  which  we  are  chiefly  concerned  ;  for  Greek 
tradition  universally  places  the  Heroic  Age  in  times  immediately 
preceding  the  Dorian  invasion.  It  is  therefore  a  fact  of  great 
significance  that  the  deposits  of  this  age  agree  in  so  striking  a 
manner  with  the  evidence  of  the  Homeric  poems.  As  to  the 
relative  duration  of  the  two  periods  (Late  Minoan  III  and  sub- 
Mycenean  or  Achaean)  archaeologists  apparently  have  not  as 
yet  ventured  to  express  an  opinion.  But  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  poems  themselves  give  no  indication  that  the  Achaean 
dominion  was  believed  to  be  of  recent  growth.  The  Cretan 
king  Idomeneus  is  one  of  the  oldest  leaders  at  Troy,  and  his 
grandfather  is  said  to  have  reigned  at  Cnossos  before  him.  The 
evidence  of  the  poems  then  favours  the  idea  that  even  in  Crete 
Achaean  dominion  lasted  at  least  a  century. 

This  brings  us  back  nearly  to  times  when,  fortunately, 
historical  evidence  is  available  once  more,  namely  from  the 
Egyptian  monuments.  During  the  thirteenth  and  twelfth  cen- 
turies Egypt  was  threatened  on  several  occasions  by  formidable 
armies.     During  the  reign  of  Merenptah,  probably  about  1220, 

^  Dr  Mackenzie's  theory  would  certainly  gain  in  probability  if  it  could  be  shown 
that  the  Pelasgoi  were  identical  with  the  Pulesatha  or  Philistines  (cf.  p.  188).  The 
arguments  in  favour  of  such  an  identification  are  obvious  enough  ;  but  they  are 
scarcely  of  such  a  nature  as  to  carry  conviction.  The  appearance  of  -si-  for  -gsk-  in 
the  name  is  perhaps  hardly  to  be  regarded  as  an  insuperable  difficulty ;  for  we  know 
nothing  of  the  languages  involved  or  of  the  sound-changes  to  which  they  were  subject. 


l88  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

it  was  attacked  by  a  host  of  Libyans  and  "  foreign  soldiers  of 
the  Libyans "  whom  "  the  miserable  Libyan  had  led  hither^" 
The  names  given  to  the  confederates  are  Akaiuasha,  Thuirsha 
(Turusha),  Shakalesha  (Shakarusha)  and  Shardina.  Very  early 
in  the  next  century,  during  the  reign  of  Rameses  III,  a  fresh 
attack  was  made  from  the  same  quarter.  A  few  years  later 
Rameses  encountered  both  by  land  and  sea  a  great  host  coming 
from  the  north.  "The  Isles  were  restless,  disturbed  among 
themselves  at  one  and  the  same  time.  No  land  stood  before 
them,  beginning  from  Kheta  (Cappadocia  and  Cilicia),  Kedi  (the 
'circling'  of  the  Syrian  coast  at  the  Gulf  of  Iskanderun),  Car- 
chemish,  Arvad  and  Alashiya.  They  destroyed  them,  and 
assembled  in  their  camp  in  the  midst  of  Amar  (Amurru;  Pales- 
tine)^"  The  invaders  here  are  called  Shardina,  Pulesatha  (or 
Purusatha),  Vashasha,  Tchakaray  (Zakar)  and  Danaau  (or 
Danauna)^  Other  Shardina  appear  to  have  been  fighting  on  the 
side  of  the  Egyptians.  About  a  century  earlier  the  Hittites 
brought  a  great  confederacy  against  Rameses  IL  Among  the 
names  given  here  are  Luka,  Pidasa,  Kalakisha,  Dardenui  and 
Masa^  On  this  occasion  also  we  find  Shardina  in  the  Egyptian 
army.  In  the  Tell-el-Amarna  tablets,  which  date  from  shortly 
before  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  we  hear  of  Sirdana 
(apparently  the  same  people)  serving  under  the  Egyptians  in 
Palestine,  and  of  attacks  made  upon  the  coast  by  Lukki,  who 
are  believed  to  be  identical  with  the  Luka'. 

Unfortunately  scholars  have  not  yet  been  able  to  come  to 
any  general  agreement  as  to  the  identification  of  most  of  these 
names.  It  is  commonly  held  that  Pulesatha  and  Luka  denote 
the  Philistines  and  Lycians  respectively.  Many  writers  also 
identify  the  Shardina  with  the  Sardinians  and  the  Shakalesha 
with  the  Siceloi,  but  others  connect  these  names  with  Sardis 

^  Cf.  Hall,  The  Oldest  Civilization  of  Greece,  p.  i8of. ;  Ann.  of  the  Brit.  School 
at  Athens,  vill,  p.  i8o;  Petrie,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  io8ff. 

2  Hall,  Ann.  of  the  Brit.  School,  viii  183 ;  cf.  also  Breasted,  Ancient  Records  of 
Egypt,  IV,  p.  37  f. 

*  Prof.  Breasted  (I.e.)  gives  these  names  as  Peleset,  Thekel  (i.e.  Zakar),  Shekelesh 
(omitted  above),  Denyen  and  Weshesh. 

^  Cf.  Hall,  op.  cit.  p.  i77f. 

*  Cf.  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  pp.  336,  386  ;  Hall,  op.  cit.  p.  i76f. 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  1 89 

and  Sagalassos  in  Asia  Minor.  Other  identifications  which 
have  received  more  or  less  assent  are  those  of  Akaiuasha, 
Thuirsha,  Danaau,  Dardenui  and  Masa  with  the  Achaeans, 
Tyrrhenians,  Danaoi,  Dardanoi  and  Mysians,  and  of  Vashasha 
and  Pidasa  with  the  inhabitants  of  Oaxos  (in  Crete)  and  Pedasos 
(in  Caria)  respectively.  It  has  been  supposed  also  that  the 
Tchakaray,  who  are  mentioned  occasionally  as  mariners  in  later 
times,  likewise  belonged  to  Crete. 

In  spite  of  the  large  element  of  doubt  attaching  to  most  of 
these  identifications  one  important  conclusion  may  be  drawn  with 
safety,  namely  that  several  of  the  nations  mentioned  had  come 
from  a  considerable  distance.  Even  those  scholars  who  deny 
the  references  to  Sicily  and  Sardinia  hold  that  nearly  all  parts 
of  the  Aegean  are  represented  in  the  lists.  The  inscriptions 
frequently  speak  of  the  invaders  as  coming  from  the  sea  or  from 
islands.  Thus  the  Pulesatha  are  said  to  be  "  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea."  Again  the  king  "slaughtered  the  Danauna  in  their  isles ^" 
We  find  also  the  expressions  "  Vashasha  of  the  sea,"  "  Shardina 
of  the  sea,"  "  Thuirsha  of  the  seaV  Such  terms  are  said  to  be 
often  used  loosely;  but  under  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
dynasties  the  territories  of  the  Hittite  kingdom  in  Syria  and 
Cappadocia  had  become  so  well  known  to  the  Egyptians  that  it 
is  incredible  that  any  of  the  peoples  of  that  region  can  be 
meant.  The  appearance  too  and  the  armature  of  the  Shardina, 
as  portrayed  on  the  monuments,  are  quite  incompatible  with  the 
supposition  that  they  belonged  to  any  of  the  countries  round 
the  south-east  of  the  Mediterranean. 

We  have  seen  that  the  northern  invasion  repelled  by 
Rameses  III  was  preceded  by  'disturbances  in  the  isles,'  while 
the  lands  of  the  Hittites  and  their  neighbours  had  apparently 
been  overrun  by  the  invaders  before  the  attack  upon  Egypt. 
Now  it  has  been  noted  that  the  great  Hittite  kingdom  (in 
Cappadocia)  appears  to  have  been  destroyed  about  the  same 
time.  In  explanation  of  this  the  theory  has  recently  been  put 
forward'  that  the  invasion  repelled  by  Rameses  III  was  closely 

^  Cf.  W.  M.  Miiller,  Asien  und  Eiiropa,  pp.  361,  363;  Petrie,  History  of  Egypt, 
III,  p.  150. 

2  Cf.  W.  M.  Muller,  op.  cit.  pp.  361,  371  ;  Petrie,  op.  cit.  pp.  151,  162. 
'  Cf.  Meyer,  S.-B.  der  Akad.zu  Berlin,  1908,  p.  i8f. 


190  THE    HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP. 

connected  with  that  irruption  of  Thraco-Phrygian  peoples  into 
Asia  Minor  to  which  we  have  already  referred  (p.  178).  It 
will  be  seen  that  this  theory  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
Homeric  question  ;  for  in  the  Iliad  we  find  the  Thraco-Phrygian 
peoples  already  fully  established  in  Asia  Minor,  and  no  hint  is 
given  that  their  settlement  there  was  believed  to  be  in  any 
sense  recent. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  '  disturbances  in 
the  isles  '  may  refer  to  a  displacement  of  population  in  a  different 
quarter — which  may  or  may  not  be  connected  with  the  Phrygian 
settlement  in  Asia  Minor.  The  movement  against  Egypt  was, 
in  part  at  least,  a  maritime  one,  and  when  Rameses  is  said  to 
have  slaughtered  the  invaders  in  their  islands  the  reference 
can  hardly  be  to  the  old  Hittite  kingdom,  which  had  long  been 
known  to  the  Egyptians.  Surely  it  is  more  natural  to  connect 
the  'disturbances'  with  those  national  movements  in  the  southern 
Aegean  which  eventually  brought  the  Mycenean  civilisation  to 
an  end.  We  have  seen  that  the  last  period  of  this  civilisation  is 
believed  to  have  begun  in  the  fourteenth  century  and  to  have 
lasted  some  considerable  time.  The  convulsions  of  Rameses' 
time  (the  early  years  of  the  twelfth  century)  may  therefore  mark 
a  stage  in  the  movements  which  brought  about  its  destruc- 
tion. 

In  any  case  it  is  from  the  Egyptian  monuments  of  this  period 
that  we  obtain  the  clearest  evidence  for  contact  between  the  true 
Mycenean  civilisation  and  that  '  sub-Mycenean  '  or  *  Achaean  ' 
type  which  followed  it.  The  warriors  of  the  invading  forces^  are 
represented  as  armed  with  swords  of  the  regular  Mycenean 
pattern  or  with  spears  of  no  very  great  length.  Some  of  them 
— the  Pulesatha  and  Tchakaray — wear  a  peculiar  head-dress, 
apparently  made  of  feathers ^  which  recalls  the  type  used  in  later 
times  by  the  Lycians  according  to  Herodotus  (vn  92).  On 
the  other  hand  the  Shardina  are  depicted  with  very  elaborate 

^  A  considerable  number  of  the  figures  are  reproduced  in  W.  M.  Miiller's  Asien 
und  Europa  (cap.  27,  28) ;  many  also  in  the  Histories  of  Egypt  by  Meyer  and  Petrie. 

2  This  head-dress  is  figured  on  a  discus  recently  found  at  Phaislos  (Crete)  among 
deposits  dating  from  'Middle  Minoan  III'  (cent.  xvii?).  The  discus,  if  not  actually 
of  Cretan  origin,  is  said  to  come  clearly  from  some  district  under  the  influence  of 
Cretan  civilisation.     Cf.  Meyer,  S.-B.  d.  Akad.  zu  Berlin,  1910,  p.  1022  fif. 


I 


IX]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  I9I 

helmets^  which,  except  that  they  have  no  plumes,  are  almost 
identical  with  those  borne  by  the  figures  on  the  Warrior  Vase 
(cf.  p.  185).  The  Shardina  and  many  of  the  Pulesatha  also 
carry  round  shields,  held  in  one  hand,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
warriors  represented  on  the  Vase^  and  the  Stele.  This  fact  is 
especially  noteworthy,  since  the  round  shield  seems  to  have 
been  totally  foreign  not  only  to  the  Egyptians  themselves,  but 
also  to  the  Hittites  and  all  neighbouring  peoples^  while  even 
in  the  Aegean  area  it  was  apparently  not  used  in  centres  of 
Mycenean  civilisation*.  On  the  other  hand  both  these  features 
correspond  to  the  type  of  armature  described  in  the  Homeric 
poems.  It  would  not  be  correct  of  course  to  say  that  the 
portraits  of  the  Shardina  might  be  taken  as  faithful  representa- 
tions of  Homeric  warriors.  We  find  no  trace  of  greaves,  while 
the  body-armour  is  of  a  less  elaborate  type  than  that  described 
in  the  poems'.  The  Homeric  type  of  armature — represented  by 
the  Warrior  Vase  as  well  as  in  the  poems — belongs  clearly  to  a 
later  stage  of  development  than  the  Shardina  type,  and  therefore 
probably  to  a  later  age  than  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century. 
Yet  there  is  sufficient  resemblance  between  the  two  to  render  it 
more  than  likely  that  the  one  is  descended  from  the  other. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  causes  which  brought  about 
the  movement  encountered  by  Rameses  HI,  some  of  the  other 
references  point  distinctly  to  bands  of  mercenary  soldiers,  rather 
than  to  national  migrations.     This  is  especially  clear  in  the  case 

^  They  are  said  to  be  white ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  are  not  metal — 
possibly  bronze  overlaid  with  tin  (cf.  II.  xxiil  560  ff.). 

2  The  shields  figured  on  the  Vase  (apparently  also  those  on  the  Stele)  seem  to 
have  a  section  cut  out  of  them  ;  but  they  can  hardly  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as 
round  shields.     Cf.  Lippold,  Munchener  Arch.  Studien,  p.  406. 

'  Except  the  Assyrians  (cf.  p.  203,  note)  ;  but  there  the  evidence  comes  from 
much  later  times. 

*  It  occurs  probably  on  the  discus  from  Phaistos  (cf.  Meyer  /.  c.)  and  on  a  porcelain 
fragment  from  the  third  shaft -grave  at  Mycenae  (cf.  Reichel,  iiher  horn.  Waffen,  p.  58) 
— both  times  in  conjunction  with  head-dresses  of  the  Pulesatha  or  Shardina  types — as 
well  as  on  ivory  objects  from  Enkomi  in  Cyprus  (cf.  Evans,  Journ.  Antkr.  Inst., 
XXX  209),  here  also  in  conjunction  with  similar  armature,  though  only  the  lower  part 
of  the  helmet  is  visible. 

'  Many  of  the  figures,  both  Shardina  and  Pulesatha,  wear  body-armour  of  some 
kind.     Greaves  are  first  found  at  Enkomi. 


192  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   GREECE  [CHAP.  IX 

of  the  Shardina,  who  are  mentioned  for  the  first  time  as  serving 
under  the  Egyptians  in  Palestine.  But  the  earHest  reference — 
in  the  Tell-el-Amarna  letters — carries  us  back  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Cretan  palaces,  if  Dr  Evans'  date  for  this  catastrophe  is 
correct.  It  has  been  remarked  that,  in  striking  contrast  with 
Mycenae  and  other  early  centres  of  civilisation  in  Greece,  the 
Cretan  palaces  were  almost  entirely  unfortified  ;  and  the  expla- 
nation commonly  given  of  this  fact  is  that  their  owners  ruled 
the  seas.  If  this  is  true  we  must  conclude  that  the  earliest 
maritime  expeditions  of  the  Shardina  and  their  confederates  did 
not  take  place  without  their  consent. 

In  the  course  of  this  discussion  we  have  seen  that,  though 
historical  evidence  for  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  is  entirely  wanting, 
later  tradition  points  to  the  eleventh  century  as  the  time  to 
which  the  poems  and  legends  refer;  and  further,  that,  unsatis- 
factory as  it  doubtless  is,  this  evidence  is  corroborated  to  a 
considerable  extent  by  the  results  of  archaeological  investigation. 
In  much  earlier  times  various  parts  of  the  Greek  world  possessed 
a  high  civilisation,  which  has  left  remains  of  magnificent  palaces 
and  many  elaborate  works  of  art.  The  evidence  of  these  remains 
does  not  correspond  at  all  to  the  state  of  society  revealed  in  the 
poems.  But  at  the  close  of  this  earlier  period  many  new  objects 
— belonging,  it  would  seem,  to  a  new  population — make  their 
appearance  ;  and  these  latter  do  fulfil  the  conditions  required. 
Lastly,  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  from  the  fourteenth  to  the 
twelfth  century  Egypt  and  the  Levant  were  frequently  visited 
by  bands  of  soldiers,  who  seem  to  have  come  from  the  Aegean 
or  neighbouring  regions  and  who  outwardly  bear  a  somewhat 
striking  resemblance  to  the  warriors  described  in  the  poems.  It 
would  appear  that  at  this  time  the  East  must  have  been  more 
familiar  to  the  Greek  world  than  Greek  records  would  lead  us 
to  expect.  This  is  the  more  noteworthy  since  during  the 
following  centuries  the  Greeks  seem  to  have  had  but  little 
contact  with  foreign  nations. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    HOMERIC   POEMS. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that,  according  to  the  theory  now 
most  commonly  accepted,  the  Homeric  poems  were  not  the  work 
of  one  author  or  even  of  one  generation — that  on  the  contrary 
they  grew  up  gradually  in  the  course  of  several  hundred  years, 
reaching  their  final  form  (in  the  case  of  the  Odyssey)  perhaps 
not  before  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century.  We  must  now 
review  briefly  the  evidence  on  which  this  theory  is  based. 

The  earliest  historical  references  to  the  poems  reach  back 
only  to  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  and  even  these  are 
not  altogether  satisfactory.  Cleisthenes,  tyrant  of  Sicyon, 
according  to  Herodotus  (v  6"]^  prohibited  rhapsodists  from 
reciting  the  Homeric  poems,  because  they  were  full  of  the  praises 
of  Argos  and  its  people.  But  the  reference  here  is  perhaps 
rather  to  the  Thebais  or  Epigonoi  than  the  Iliad.  Again,  it  is 
said  that  when  Athens  and  Megara  were  disputing  about  the 
possession  of  Salamis,  both  parties  appealed  to  the  authority  of 
Homer  in  support  of  their  contentions.  If  this  story  may  be 
trusted  it  is  of  importance  as  showing  that  the  poems  were 
generally  venerated  at  such  an  early  date.  And  though  all  the 
evidence  is  late^,  the  form  in  which  the  passage  in  question 
(II.  II  557  f)  has  survived  does  clearly  suggest  Athenian  in- 
fluence. 

References  in  the  works  of  other  poets  carry  us  back  to  a 
considerably  earlier  period.  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that 
Callinos  is  said  to  have  attributed  the  Thebais  to  Homer,  from 
which  we  may  infer  that  poems  under  this  name  were  already 

^  Plutarch,  Solon,  cap.  lo;  Diogenes  Laertius,  Solon,  cap.  48,  etc.     In  some  form 
or  other  the  story  was  known  to  Aristotle  [Rhet.  i  15). 


194  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

known.  Archilochos,  who  likewise  flourished  before  the  middle 
of  the  seventh  century,  seems  to  have  attributed  the  Margites  to 
Homer^  The  extant  fragments  of  his  works  also  contain 
several  passages  which  apparently  show  Homeric  influenced 
Terpandros,  probably  an  older  contemporary  of  Archilochos,  is 
said  to  have  invented  a  musical  accompaniment  for  the  Homeric 
poems  I  In  Hesiodic  poetry  we  find  a  number  of  references  to 
heroic  subjects.  The  Catalogue  appears  to  have  dealt  with 
certain  adventures  of  Odysseus,  which  were  probably  derived 
from  the  Odyssey*. 

This  evidence,  vague  and  somewhat  uncertain  as  it  is,  renders 
it  probable  that  Homeric  poetry  was  in  existence  before  the 
seventh  century.  Further  than  this  we  cannot  hope  for  any 
direct  external  evidence,  for  the  authors  cited  are  the  earliest  of 
whom  we  know  anything  worth  mention.  Indeed  the  age  of 
the  various  Hesiodic  poems  themselves  is  very  problematical. 
It  is  customary  now  to  attribute  the  Theogony  and  the  Works 
and  Days  to  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  and  the  other 
poems  to  the  seventh.  But  Herodotus  (ll  53)  referred  Hesiod, 
as  well  as  Homer,  to  a  period  about  400  years  before  his  own 
time,  i.e.  to  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century. 

Turning  now  to  the  internal  evidence,  we  may  at  all  events 
regard  one  fact  as  established,  namely  that  the  subject-matter 
was  determined  at  a  period  considerably  anterior  to  those  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking.  It  is  not  merely  that  the  persons 
mentioned  are  uniformly  referred  to  the  Heroic  Age,  for  we 
have  yet  to  discuss  the  possibility  that  all  the  characters  of  this 
age  are  fictitious.  But  we  have  also  to  take  into  account  the 
ethnographical  indications  contained  in  the  poems.  There  is  no 
hint  of  the  presence  of  Dorians  in  the  Peloponnesos,  nor  of  the 
existence  of  Ionic  states  in  Asia  Minor  or  even  in  the  Cyclades'; 
indeed  the  scheme  of  tribal  or  political  geography  which  they 
present  is  far  removed  from  anything  we  find  even  in  the  earliest 

^  Archilochos,  Fragm.  153  (in  Bergk's  Poelae  Lyrici  Graeci). 

^  Cf.  Croisset,  Rev.  des  deux  Mondes,  1907,  5,  p.  605. 

3  Plutarch,  De  Musica,  iii  9. 

*  Hesiod,  Fragm.  65  f.  (in  Rzach's  edition,  1902). 

^  In  Od.  VI  162  ff.  there  is  a  reference  to  the  sanctuary  of  Apollo  in  Delos. 


X]  THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  195 

records  of  the  historical  period.  We  shall  see  later  that  the  same 
remark  holds  good  with  regard  to  the  system  of  government 
depicted  in  the  poems,  e.g.  in  the  universal  prevalence  of  king- 
ship, and  so  also  with  their  indications  as  to  social  organisation, 
religion  and  even  ethical  standards.  Then  there  is  the  fact  that 
in  references  to  weapons  bronze  is  far  more  frequently  mentioned 
than  iron;  yet  it  is  generally  agreed  that  iron  must  have  been  in 
common  use  by  the  tenth  century,  while  some  scholars  would 
refer  its  introduction  to  a  much  earlier  date.  Lastly,  we  may 
take  note  of  certain  passages  and  expressions  which  seem  to 
contain  reminiscences  of  the  prehistoric  civilisation  of  the  Aegean 
— a  civilisation  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  passed  its  zenith  in 
the  fourteenth  century  and  which  was  probably  altogether  sub- 
merged in  the  convulsions  which  accompanied  the  Dorian  and 
Ionic  migrations.  Among  such  reminiscences  we  may  probably 
count  the  descriptions  of  the  palaces  of  Menelaos  and  Alcinoos 
and  the  use  of  such  terms  as  Kvavo<;.  Of  course  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  any  part  of  the  poems  goes  back  to  the  period  of 
the  early  civilisation.  Yet  the  features  noted  above  seem  to  me 
to  point  quite  clearly  to  a  time  when  some  of  the  ancient  palaces 
were  still  known  and  perhaps  still  inhabited.  Hence  it  is  not 
merely  the  case  that  the  poems  are  concerned  exclusively  with 
characters  of  the  Heroic  Age.  We  are  bound  to  conclude  further 
that  the  environment  in  which  these  characters  are  placed  is  in 
general  such  as  belonged  to  the  same  period.  This  of  course 
involves  the  existence  of  a  verbal  tradition  practically  from  the 
Heroic  Age  itself  Indeed,  we  may  say  that  it  probably  involves 
a  poetic  tradition,  for  we  have  no  evidence  for  the  existence  of 
traditional  prose  narratives,  whereas  references  to  the  cultivation 
of  poetry  in  early  times  are  fairly  numerous. 

Now  it  is  generally  agreed  that  the  Heroic  Age — or  perhaps 
we  should  say  the  type  of  civilisation  and  the  ethnographical 
conditions  with  which  this  age  is  associated — cannot  have  lasted 
much  beyond  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century.  Hence  the  date 
accepted  by  many  scholars  for  the  completion  of  the  Odyssey 
(cf  p.  169)  involves  a  period  of  more  than  three  centuries,  during 
which  the  Homeric  poems  were  in  process  of  formation.  That  is 
a  long  period  for  continued  composition  in  one  subject,  and  it 


196  THE  HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

will  be  well  now  to  review  briefly  the  evidence  on  which  this 
theory  rests. 

Kirchhoff^  dated  the  'later  redaction'  of  the  Odyssey  between 
01.  30  and  01.  50,  or  at  all  events  not  much  before  Ol.  30 
(B.C.  656).  To  this  conclusion  he  was  led  primarily  by  the 
reference  to  the  voyage  of  the  Argo  in  xn  59 — 72.  It  is  probable 
enough  that  this  passage  implies  acquaintance  with  a  poem 
dealing  with  lason's  adventures ;  but  the  same  can  hardly  be 
said  of  Kirchhoff's  further  suggestion,  viz.  that  this  lost  poem 
must  have  been  composed  some  considerable  time  after  the 
colonisation  of  Cyzicos^  The  accounts  which  we  have  of  the 
travels  and  adventures  of  the  Argonauts  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
indicate  that  the  earliest  poems  on  this  subject  were  composed 
at  a  time  when  the  Black  Sea  was  already  familiar  to  the  Greeks; 
on  the  other  hand  travellers  from  time  to  time  may  have 
penetrated  into  that  region  centuries  before  the  foundation  of 
Cyzicos*. 

Others  have  sought  to  show  that  the  later  parts  of  the  poem 
betray  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  western  seas,  such  as 
would  be  possible  only  after  the  development  of  Corinthian 
maritime  enterprise  about  the  close  of  the  eighth  century, 
whereas  the  knowledge  of  the  same  regions  shown  by  the  earlier 
parts  is  of  the  vaguest  description*.  Here  the  evidence  is 
derived  chiefly  from  the  references  to  Sicily  (St/ca/'t?;)  and  the 

^  Die  Composition  der  Odyssee,  p.  85  f. ;  Die  horn.  Odyssee^,  p.  287  ff. 

^  The  references  to  the  spring  'ApTaKl-q  (cf.  Od.  x  107  f.)  cannot  be  regarded  as 
conclusive,  since  such  connections  are  capable  of  more  than  one  explanation — even  if 
we  bear  in  mind  the  name  of  the  adjacent  mountain  ('Aprd/fTj).  The  mountain  itself 
may  have  been  known  to  the  Greeks  from  early  times. 

*  In  view  of  the  evidence  pointed  out  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  one  will  do 
well  to  hesitate  before  denying  the  possibility  of  such  distant  expeditions  in  early 
times.  But  any  communication  which  may  have  existed  must  have  been  interrupted 
by  the  invasions  of  the  Bithynoi  and  Treres,  probably  in  the  ninth  and  eighth 
centuries.  Note  may  also  be  taken  here  of  what  is  said  about  the  Cimmerioi  in 
Od.  XI  14 — 19  ;  cf.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  AlCerthiims,  n,  pp.  367  f. ,  445  f. 

•*  Cf.  especially  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff,  Horn.  Unt.  p.  24  ff.  The  theory  that 
the  Ephyre  of  li  328  must  be  a  different  place  from  the  Ephyre  of  i  259  seems  to  me 
very  problematical  if  the  author  of  the  second  book  had  only  a  vague  knowledge  of 
the  geography  of  western  Greece.  Again,  if  Ilos  Mermerides  (i  259)  is  taken  from 
the  story  of  the  Argo,  is  it  really  necessary  that  the  source  should  be  a  different  one 
from  that  referred  to  in  xii  69  ff.  ? 


X]  TFIE   HOMERIC    POEMS  197 

Siceloi,  i^lybas  (traditionally  placed  in  the  Gulf  of  Otranto,  but 
perhaps  rather  a  coined  name)  and  Temesa,  which  is  identified 
with  Tempsa  in  Calabria.  This  theory  seems  to  me  to  be  open 
to  much  the  same  objections  as  the  other.  It  is  clear  now  that 
in  prehistoric  times  the  south  of  Italy  was  intimately  connected 
with  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Adriatic,  and  we  have  no  ground  for 
denying  that  the  former  may  have  been  known  to  Greek  traders 
or  pirates  long  before  the  date  of  the  earliest  colonies. 

A  third  argument,  and  one  which  has  exercised  a  much  wider 
influence,  is  based  on  the  relationship  of  certain  portions  of  the 
poems  to  the  lost  Cyclic  poems  (Cypria,  etc.).  It  is  held  for 
instance  that  the  Catalogues  in  II.  Ii,  at  all  events  the  Trojan 
catalogue,  were  taken  from  the  Cypria,  and  again  that  in  the 
Nekyia  (Od.  XI)  and  elsewhere  use  has  been  made  of  the  Little 
Iliad  and  the  Nostoi,  as  well  as  the  Cypria.  But,  granting  the 
correctness  of  these  hypotheses,  no  conclusions  as  to  date  can  be 
drawn  from  them  unless  the  dates  of  the  lost  poems  themselves 
are  established.  We  have  seen  however  that  such  is  not  really 
the  case ;  it  is  admitted  that  the  attribution  of  these  poems  to 
Arctinos,  Lesches  and  others  does  not  occur  until  very  late  times. 
All  that  can  be  said  is  that  they  appear  to  have  contained  certain 
'post-Homeric'  features,  such  as  purification  for  manslaughter 
(in  the  Aithiopis).  With  these  we  shall  have  to  deal  later. 
There  is  no  need  however  to  suppose  that  the  lost  poems  were 
any  more  homogeneous  than  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 

Again  it  is  thought  that  certain  passages  betray  the  influence 
of  Hesiodic  poetry,  while  others  indicate  genealogies  or  relation- 
ships which  are  at  variance  with  statements  contained  in  the 
latter\  Among  the  former  we  may  note  especially  the  list  of 
women  in  the  Nekyia  (Od.  XI  235 — 327"),  which  is  compared 
with  the  Hesiodic  Catalogue  of  heroines.  This  evidence  would 
be  useful  for  chronological  purposes  if  we  knew  (i)  when  Hesiod 
lived,  (ii)  that  he  was  the  first  to  compose  catalogues  of  this  kind. 

^  From  this  it  has  been  argued  that  the  '  Odyssey '  known  to  Hesiod  must  have 
differed  greatly  from  the  poem  which  has  come  down  to  us.  But  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  there  are  quite  as  noticeable  discrepancies  between  the  Odyssey  and  the 
Iliad. 

^  We  shall  have  occasion  later  to  notice  more  than  one  point  in  which  this 
passage  departs  from  the  customary  Homeric  standards. 


198  THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

But  unfortunately  neither  of  these  propositions  can  be  admitted. 
To  the  first  we  have  already  referred.  The  majority  of  scholars 
hold  that  Hesiod  cannot  have  lived  much  after  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  did  not 
live  before  that  time  ;  for  no  sound  argument  can  be  founded 
on  the  last  verses  of  the  Theogony.  As  for  the  Catalogue  it 
belongs  to  a  class  of  poetry  of  which  the  beginnings  may 
go  back  to  a  remote  antiquity.  The  presumption  is  that  it 
originated  in  times  when  descent  was  still  traced  through  the 
mother. 

On  internal  grounds  many  arguments  have  been  brought 
forward  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  the  poems  in  their 
present  form  have  undergone  a  long  process  of  development. 
With  discrepancies  in  the  narrative  itself  we  need  not  concern 
ourselves.  They  are  doubtless  of  importance  for  determining 
the  question  of  single  or  composite  authorship,  but  they  do  not 
necessarily  point  to  authorship  of  quite  different  ages.  For 
instance,  one  poet  may  have  conceived  of  the  Achaean  camp  as 
fortified,  another  as  without  fortifications.  But  that  does  not 
prove  that  the  two  poets  were  not  contemporary,  for  it  will  not 
be  disputed  that  the  people  of  the  Heroic  Age  were  capable  of 
building  fortifications.  Again,  it  may  be  that  the  original  poem 
on  the  '  Wrath  of  Achilles '  did  not  originally  contain  Books  n — 
VII.  But,  apart  from  one  or  two  details  which  we  shall  discuss 
presently,  there  is  nothing  to  suggest  that  these  books  are  the 
product  of  an  entirely  different  period. 

We  may  even  take  what  is  perhaps  the  most  extreme  case, 
that  of  the  Doloneia.  This  book  is  joined  on  very  loosely  to 
what  precedes,  and  its  contents  are  practically  disregarded  in 
the  rest  of  the  Iliads  Some  critics  even  in  ancient  times  seem  to 
have  believed  that  it  did  not  originally  belong  to  the  poem. 
Moreover  it  contains  a  number  of  features  peculiar  to  itself  and 
several  expressions  which  are  regarded  as  indications  of  lateness. 
In  particular  there  are  some  striking  parallels  to  the  passages  in 

1  Except  probably  in  xiv  9ff.,  as  has  been  ingeniously  pointed  out  by  Mr  Lang 
{Homer  and  his  Age,  p.  276  ff.).  In  the  same  chapter  Mr  Lang  shows  that  several 
features  in  the  Doloneia  which  have  been  interpreted  as  marks  of  lateness  may  very 
well  be  due  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  situation. 


1 


X]  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  1 99 

the  Odyssey,  and  it  is  held  that  in  certain  cases  they  are  due  to 
direct  influence  from  the  latter^  But,  granting  all  this,  we  are 
still  not  in  a  position  to  decide  whether  the  chronological  differ- 
ence between  the  Doloneia  and  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Iliad  is  to 
be  reckoned  at  three  centuries  or  two  or  one^. 

As  no  definite  results  can  be  attained  from  such  considera- 
tions as  these  we  will  now  confine  our  attention  to  arguments 
which  are  founded  upon  real  or  supposed  differences  of  culture. 
The  most  important  class  of  evidence  for  our  purpose  is  that 
which  relates  to  the  use  of  the  metals.  Both  bronze  and  iron  are 
frequently  mentioned  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  both  were 
well  known.  But  it  has  been  observed  that  weapons  are  nearly 
always  said  to  be  of  bronze  ('x^oX.ko';,  'x^akKeov  €y'x,o<;,  etc.^),  whereas 
iron  is  usually  mentioned  either  as  a  substance  or  in  reference  to 
tools,  especially  hatchets\  Only  in  seven  verses  do  we  hear  of 
iron  weapons,  even  if  we  include  in  this  category  the  knives 
mentioned  in  II.  xvin  34  and  xxni  30.  Two  verses  (id.  VII  141, 
143  f)  speak  of  an  iron  club  and  one  (id.  IV  123)  of  an  arrow- 
head, while  the  other  two  (Od.  xvi  294,  XIX  13)  refer  to  the 
arms  in  Odysseus'  house  collectively. 

The  obvious  inference  from  the  statistics  is  that  iron  tools 
came  into  use  before  iron  weapons,  and  though  this  was  long 
thought  incredible  it  has  recently  been  shown  that  there  is  some 

^  Gemoll,  Hermes,  xv  557  ff.  (cf.  xviii  308  ff.).  Cf.  also  Shewan,  Class.  Quarterly, 
IV  73  ff.,  where  this  view  is  rejected. 

^  Mr  Lang  {Homer  and  his  Age,  p.  265  ff.)  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
V.  261  ff.  Odysseus  is  represented  as  wearing  a  cap  of  a  type  which  appears  to  have 
been  in  use  during  the  Mycenean  age.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  article  in 
question  was  peculiar  to  that  period,  the  lateness  of  the  book  would  certainly  be  open 
to  serious  question. 

^  Bronze  is  mentioned  -279  times  in  the  Iliad  and  80  times  in  the  Odyssey.  In 
a  large  proportion  of  these  cases  the  reference  is  to  weapons.  Cf.  Helbig,  Das 
homerische  Epos,  p.  329  ff. 

*  Iron  is  mentioned  altogether  48  times.  In  nine  cases  it  is  spoken  of  merely  as 
a  substance — a  possession  or  article  of  trade.  To  these  we  may  add  fifteen  more  in 
which  the  word  is  used  metaphorically  as  a  standard  of  hardness,  etc.,  and  one 
(Od.  IX  393)  which  refers  to  the  testing  of  iron  in  water.  Iron  tools  or  implements 
are  mentioned  thirteen  times,  apart  from  the  two  references  to  knives  given  above. 
We  hear  also  of  iron  chains  (Od.  i  204),  the  iron  axle-tree  of  a  (divine)  chariot-wheel 
(II.  V  723),  and  the  iron  door  of  Tartarus  {ib.  vili  15);  cf.  Cauer,  Grundfragen  der 
Homer-kritif?,  p.  281  ff. 


200  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

evidence  for  the  prevalence  of  such  conditions  in  Palestine \ 
Moreover  a  somewhat  striking  confirmation  of  the  Homeric 
evidence  was  furnished  by  the  excavations  at  Troy,  where  a  small 
lump  of  unwrought  iron  was  found  among  deposits  belonging 
apparently  to  the  fifth  stratum-.  It  has  been  compared,  and 
doubtless  rightly,  with  the  lump  mentioned  in  II.  XXHI  826  ff., 
though  the  latter  must  have  been  much  larger.  The  presumption 
is  that,  like  this,  it  was  intended  for  some  tool  or  agricultural 
implement ;  for  all  the  weapons  found  at  Troy — few  as  they  were 
unfortunately — up  to  the  seventh  stratum  were  of  bronze.  It  is 
probable  therefore  that  the  use  of  the  metals  not  only  in  the  fifth 
stratum  but  also  in  the  sixth — the  great  Mycenean  fortress — 
was  similar  to  that  which  is  indicated  in  the  Homeric  poems. 
For  those  who  believe  that  these  poems  are  the  work  of  a 
single  author  the  words  "  Iron  does  of  itself  attract  a  man^" 
(Od.  XVI  294,  XIX  13)  present  a  serious  difficulty.  I  cannot 
believe  in  view  of  the  evidence  given  above  that  iron  weapons 
were  regularly  employed  in  the  Heroic  Age*  and  that  the  use  of 
the  word  x^^x^^'^  is  a  piece  of  traditional  poetic  archaism.  Other- 
wise however  there  is  no  alternative  but  to  regard  the  Odyssey 
verse  as  an  interpolation  ^  But  in  reality  it  is  no  great  step  from 
iron  knives  and  arrow-heads  to  the  use  of  the  same  metal  for 
spears  or  even  swords.  If  we  were  to  adopt  the  view  that  the 
age  of  the  composition  of  the  Homeric  poems  coincides  with  the 
period  of  transition  between  the  first  use  of  iron  for  cutting  and 
piercing  instruments  to  its  general  employment  for  weapons  of 
all  kinds,  we  should  not  necessarily  require  much  more  than  a 
century   for  their  development.     Indeed    the    presence   of  iron 

^  Cf.  Macalister,  Palestine  Expl.  Fund,  Quart.  Rep.,  1903,  p.  199;  Lang,  C/ass. 
Rev.  xxil,  p.  47. 

"^  Cf.  Dorpfeld,   Troja  und  Ilion,  p.  368. 

^  auros  yhp  i(pfKKfTai  avSpa.  alSrjpos.    Cf.  Burrows,  The  Discoveries  in  Crete,  p.  2 1 4  ff. 

*  Cf.  Ridgeway,  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  p.  294  f.  Prof.  Ridgeway  allows  the 
occasional  use  of  bronze  swords,  e.g.  in  the  case  of  Euryalos  the  Phaeacian 
(Od.  viii  403 — 6).  But  the  swords  of  Paris,  Patroclos,  Achilles  and  Odysseus 
(II.  Ill  334  f.,  XVI  135  f.,  XIX  372  f.,  Od.  X  261  f.)  are  described  in  very  similar  terms 
(^£0os  dpyvp6rj\ov  xaXfeoc).  Further,  the  tendency  of  bronze  swords  to  snap  off  short 
at  the  hilt  is  well  illustrated  by  the  case  of  Lycon  in  IL.xvi  338  f. 

^  Cf.  Lang,  Homer  and  his  Age,  p.  192  f. 


\ 


X]  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  201 

swords  in  graves  of  the  sub-Mycenean  period  in  Crete  (cf.  p.  185) 
would  seem  to  show  that  the  transition  had  begun  within  what 
may  be  regarded  practically  as  the  Heroic  Age  itself. 

Again,  it  is  held  that  many  anachronisms  or  chronological 
inconsistencies  appear  in  the  battle  scenes  of  the  Iliad.  Some- 
times we  find  descriptions  of  armour  and  tactics  which  are 
thought  to  be  copied  from  those  of  Ionic  hoplites  in  early 
historical  times  and  to  be  irreconcilable  with  the  type  of  warfare 
depicted  in  other  passages.  Many  of  the  chief  men  are  repre- 
sented as  armed  with  breastplates,  for  which,  it  is  said,  there  is  no 
evidence  in  the  Mycenean  age^ — though  this  statement  is  more 
than  doubtfull  In  regard  to  the  form  of  the  shield  also  there 
is  a  discrepancy.  Sometimes  it  is  described  as  being  of  great 
length,  'like  a  tower'  or  'reaching  to  the  feet' — terms  which 
would  suit  the  long  shields  often  depicted  on  objects  of  the 
Mycenean  age.  Sometimes  on  the  other  hand  we  hear  of 
*  round '  shields,  which  suggest  the  comparatively  small  circular 
shield  of  the  historical  period. 

These  inconsistencies  only  concern  us  in  so  far  as  they  are 
supposed  to  point  to  widely  different  ages.  Unfortunately  our 
information  regarding  the  geometrical  period  is  still  very  defective 
and  we  do  not  know  how  far  its  characteristics  were  the  same  in 
all  parts  of  Greece.  The  same  remarks  apply  with  still  greater 
force  to  the  preceding  or  sub-Mycenean  age.  Hence,  though  it 
may  be  true  that  the  round  shield  does  not  make  its  appearance 
in  Attica  till  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  we  cannot  argue 
from  this  that  it  was  unknown  in  other  parts  of  Greece^.  In  the 
more  northern  parts  of  Europe  it  appears  to  be  the  earliest  form 
of  shield  which  has  been  found.  More  important  however  is  the 
fact  that  the  Shardina  and  their  confederates  used  the  round 
shield  as  far  back  as  the  thirteenth  century,  while  the  shields 
represented  on  the  Warrior  Vase  and  the  Stele  from  Mycenae 
(cf  p.  185)  can  hardly  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  variety  of 
the  same  type.    Hence,  whatever  may  be  the  connection  between 

^  Cf.  Reichel,  Ube7-  homerische   Waffen  (Abh.  d.  arch.-epigr.  Seminares  d.  Univ. 
Wien,  Heft  xi),  p.  79  ff. 

2  Cf.  p.  191  and  Y.\z.xis,  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Instiiuie,  xxx  213  f. 
^  Cf.  Ridgeway,  op.  cit.  pp.  324  f.,  475. 


202  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

the  disappearance  of  the  long  shield  and  the  growing  use  of 
body  armour,  there  is  not  the  slightest  justification  for  sup- 
posing that  the  round  variety  was  not  used  in  the  Heroic  Age 
itself. 

The  commonest  type  of  Mycenean  shield,  the  oval  type  con- 
tracted in  the  middle,  belongs  to  a  class  of  shields  which  occur  in 
various  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  probably  akin  to  the  Zulu  shield,, 
though  in  this  the  lateral  contraction  has  lost  its  meaning  and 
almost  disappeared.  The  primary  purpose  of  the  whole  class 
appears  to  be  for  defence  against  missile  weapons  {€pKo<i  dicovrwv),. 
whether  light  javelins  or  arrows.  But  the  special  characteristic 
of  the  Mycenean  variety  is  the  use  of  a  suspending  strap 
(reXa/jLcov^)  in  place  of  a  handle.  The  object  of  this  was  to  leave 
both  hands  free  for  the  use  of  a  long  spear  in  fighting  at  close 
quarters — as  we  see  in  the  representation  of  a  lion-hunt  engraved 
on  a  dagger-blade  found  at  Mycenae.  But  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  method  of  fighting  most  commonly  employed  by 
Homeric  warriors  is  of  quite  a  different  character.  First  the 
spear  was  hurled — apparently  with  one  hand  (cf,  II.  xxn  320) — 
and  then  an  attack  was  made  with  the  sword.  For  both  these 
movements  the  Mycenean  shield  was  obviously  ill  adapted. 
Indeed  for  the  second,  which  required  agility  above  everything, 
it  would  be  more  of  an  encumbrance  than  a  protection.  But 
even  when  the  spear  was  used  for  thrusting  there  is  nothing  to 
show  that  it  was  usually  held  in  both  hands  I  Hence  we  can 
hardly  avoid  concluding  that  the  Homeric  tactics  were  due  to 
the  use  of  a  different  type  of  armature,  which  included  a  com- 
paratively small  and  mobile  shield.  We  need  not  suppose  of 
course  that  the  Mycenean  shield  was  unknown  or  even  un- 
common. It  seems  fairly  clear  that  Aias  the  son  of  Telamon 
uses  one  of  this  type',  and  so  also  Periphetes  the   Mycenean 

^  This  strap  seems  to  have  been  used  for  carrying  even  comparatively  small 
shields  down  to  a  much  later  period.  It  is  not  found  apparently  in  the  representa- 
tions of  the  Shardina,  though  they  have  an  arm-strap  as  well  as  a  handle. 

^  The  Shardina  on  the  temple  of  Medinet  Habu  and  the  warriors  represented  on 
the  Stele  hold  their  spears  poised  in  their  right  hands,  precisely  at  the  same  angle. 
But  it  is  not  quite  clear  to  me  whether  a  cast  or  thrust  is  intended. 

^  (p^puv  ffdKos  rjvTe  nijpyov  (II.  XII  219,  etc.).  There  is  a  reference  no  doubt  to 
the  hero's  great  stature. 


I 


X]  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  203 

whose  shield  reached  to  his   feet  and   caused   him  to  stumble 
(II.  XV  645  ff.)'. 

A  further  suggestion  is  that  the  Homeric  use  of  the  chariot 
was  due  to  the  long  shield".  The  argument  in  this  case  is  that 
such  shields  could  not  be  carried  on  horseback,  while  their  weight 
was  too  great  to  allow  them  to  be  borne  for  any  distance  on  foot. 
This  is  an  extremely  dubious  theory  for  two  reasons.  In  the 
first  place  the  Homeric  use  of  the  chariot  is  a  problem  which 
concerns  not  Greece  alone  but  a  considerable  part  of  Europe, 
including  countries  where  there  is  no  evidence  for  the  Mycenean 
shieldl     Secondly,  it   may  be  regarded  as  a  general  rule  that 

1  Very  recently  the  history  of  Greek  shields  has  been  treated  at  length  by 
Dr  G.  Lippold  {Miinchener  Archdologische  Stiidien,  pp.  399 — 504).  This  work  is 
largely  taken  up  with  a  criticism  of  Reichel's  theories,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
discussion  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  latter  are  in  many  points  insufficiently  supported 
by  evidence.  Dr  Lippold  (pp.  406,  474)  seems  to  have  no  hesitation  in  assigning  the 
Warrior  Vase  and  its  congeners  to  the  late  Mycenean  age — he  does  not  distinguish 
between  'Mycenean'  and  '  sub-Mycenean ' — and  he  also  recognises  (p.  461  ff.)  that 
two  kinds  of  shields  figure  in  the  Homeric  poems.  The  '  tower '  shield  however 
is  identified  by  him  with  the  Dipylon  shield,  from  which  he  believes  the  '  Boeotian ' 
shield  to  be  descended.  He  holds  that  the  round  shield  was  of  Oriental  origin,  since 
it  was  used  by  the  Assyrians  in  the  ninth  century,  and  that  it  was  first  introduced  into 
Greece  towards  the  end  of  the  Mycenean  period  ;  then,  after  being  banished  for 
a  while  from  the  Greek  mainland  by  the  Dipylon  shield,  it  was  re-introduced,  in 
a  somewhat  modified  form,  towards  the  end  of  the  Dipylon  (Geometrical)  period. 
The  Homeric  poems  are  held  to  reflect  the  time  of  transition  when  it  was  re-intro- 
duced ;  but  no  date  appears  to  be  given  except  that  it  was  before  the  eighth  century 
(p.  468).  This  explanation  seems  to  me  to  be  open  to  a  serious  objection,  namely 
that  the  Homeric  shields  will  then  have  to  reflect  a  different  age  from  that  indicated 
by  the  Homeric  evidence  on  the  use  of  the  metals ;  for  the  latter  clearly  belongs  to 
the  close  of  the  Mycenean — or  rather  '  sub-Mycenean ' — period.  So  far  as  I  can  see, 
it  is  only  by  Dr  Mackenzie's  equation  of  the  Homeric  poems  with  the  Warrior  Vase 
and  certain  East  Cretan  graves  (cf.  p.  185)  that  we  can  obtain  a  consistent  and 
intelligible  sequence.  Of  course  it  may  very  well  be  that  the  round  shield  was 
banished  for  a  time  from  the  Greek  mainland  by  the  Dipylon  type.  On  the  other 
hand  the  suggestion  that  the  former  was  of  Assyrian  origin  surely  requires  evidence 
earlier  than  the  ninth  century;  for  we  find  it  used  by  the  Shardina,  who  cannot 
properly  be  regarded  as  Oriental,  as  far  back  as  the  thirteenth  century.  I  have  to 
thank  Mr  A.  B.  Cook  for  calling  my  attention  to  Dr  Lippold's  work. 

2  Cf.  Reichel,  op.  cit.  p.  53  f. 

3  Long  shields  were  regularly  used  during  the  La  Tene  period  by  the  Celtic 
peoples,  and  also  by  many  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  probably  much  later.  But  they 
seem  to  have  been  of  a  totally  different  type  from  the  Mycenean.  In  late  times  they 
were  certainly  of  great  length  (cf.  Diodorus,  v  30,  and  the  figures  on  the  bowl  of 


204  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

those  peoples  which  use  the  long  shield  not  only  fight  but  also 
go  to  battle  on  foot.  Moreover  the  evidence  of  the  poems  them- 
selves does  not  really  bear  out  the  suggested  connection.  Thus 
there  is  no  instance  of  the  long  shield  more  clear  than  that 
belonging  to  Aias  the  son  of  Telamon,  and  this  hero  is  one  of 
the  few  leading  men  who  are  never  said  to  wear  breast-plates. 
But  he  is  also  apparently  one  of  the  very  few  who  do  not  possess 
chariots.  Indeed  a  better  case  could  probably  be  made  out  for 
connecting  the  chariot  with  the  breast-plate. 

The  Homeric  use  of  the  chariot  gives  rise  to  another  question 
which  probably  deserves  more  careful  consideration.  In  the 
action  itself  driving  appears  to  be  universal ;  at  most  we  have 
only  one  doubtful  case  of  riding  (II.  x  513).  But  there  are  at 
least  two  incidental  references  (II.  XV  679  ff.,  Od.  v  371)  which 
betray  acquaintance  with  the  latter  art.  It  is  quite  possible 
therefore  that  the  knowledge  of  riding  was  a  comparatively 
recent  accomplishment  which  the  poet  or  poets  knew  to  have 
been  foreign  to  the  Heroic  Age.  Unfortunately  the  history  of 
equitation  is  a  very  obscure  subject.  In  more  eastern  countries 
the  use  of  chariots — which  here  were  war-chariots  in  the  true 
sense — continued  until  quite  late  times.  In  Cyprus  we  hear  of 
them  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century ;  and  in  Italy  they 
were  introduced,  or  re-introduced,  still  later.  But  we  do  not 
know  when  riding  began.  In  the  wall-sculptures  at  Karnak^ 
which  commemorate  the  victories  of  Sety  I  and  date  from 
towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  several  Hittites  are 
shown  on  horseback.  The  scene  represents  a  battle,  and  it  may 
have  been  the  artist's  intention  to  depict  what  was  not  a  normal 
custom  but  the  last  resource  of  fugitives  whose  chariots  had 
broken  down.  But  even  then  the  possibility  remains  that  in 
emergencies  or  under  special  conditions  riding  may  have  been 
practised  by  the  Greeks  long  before  it  was  in  regular  use.  The 
whole  subject  however  requires  further  investigation,  in  particular 

Gundestrup) ;    but    the   earliest   examples    (e.g.   the   oval    shields   depicted   on   the 
Hallstatt  sword-sheath)  may  really  be  modifications  of  the  round  shield. 

1  Cf.  Ridgeway,  The  Origin  and  Influence  of  the  Thorottghbred  Horse,  p.  510.  A 
similar  case  occurs  in  a  painting  representing  the  victory  of  Rameses  II  over  the 
Hittites,  figured  in  Meyer's  Geschichte  des  alten  Aegyptens  (plate  following  p.  290). 


X]  THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  205 

the  question  whether  there  is  reason  for  supposing  the  Hittites 
to  have  been  more  skilled  in  horsemanship  than  other  nations. 

Another  series  of  inconsistencies  has  been  pointed  out  in 
references  to  marriage  customs,  particularly  in  regard  to  the  use 
of  the  word  eeSva  (eSva).  In  several  passages  this  word  evidently 
denotes  the  sum  paid  by  the  bridegroom  to  the  bride's  guardian ; 
but  in  others  it  seems  to  mean  presents  given  to  the  bride  at 
marriage  by  her  own  relatives.  We  can  scarcely  doubt  that  a 
difference  of  custom  is  involved  in  these  usages ;  but  it  does  not 
necessarily  follow  that  the  second  group  of  passages  belong  to  a 
later  period  than  the  first.  Account  must  be  taken  of  local 
divergencies,  for  there  is  hardly  any  subject  in  which  early 
Teutonic  custom  varied  so  much  as  in  this,  even  from  the  time 
of  our  oldest  records.  Again,  it  has  been  suggested^  with  con- 
siderable probability  that  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Odyssey  are 
to  be  attributed  to  a  change  of  custom — not  in  the  sense  that  the 
earlier  parts  of  the  poem  reflect  one  form  and  the  later  parts 
another,  but  that  the  poem  as  a  whole  belongs  to  an  age  of 
transition  when  different  forms  of  matrimonial  arrangements 
were  in  vogue.  This  is  a  question  with  which  we  shall  have  to 
deal  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter. 

We  have  yet  to  consider  certain  inconsistencies  in  regard  to 
religious  observances.  Once  only  (II.  VI  303)  is  mention  made 
of  the  figure — a  seated  figure — of  a  deity,  and  consequently  it  is 
held  that  the  passage  in  question  must  be  late.  Recent  dis- 
coveries however  have  tended  to  throw  doubt  on  this  view;  for  a 
number  of  statuettes,  apparently  representing  deities,  have  come 
to  light  in  deposits  belonging  both  to  the  Mycenean  and 
Geometrical  periods,  while  primitive  female  figures,  often  in  a 
sitting  position,  are  quite  common.  The  finding  of  a  larger 
image  would  now  scarcely  call  forth  much  surprise,  though  it 
cannot  be  supposed  that  such  statues  were  of  frequent  occur- 
rence. 

In  references  to  sanctuaries  we  sometimes  hear  of  temples 
{vr)ol),  but  more  frequently  only  of  shrines  or  sacred  groves.  The 
most  certain  examples^  of  the  former  are  those  of  Apollo  and 

^  Cauer,  Grundfragcn  d.  Homer-kritiP,  p.  294  ff. 

2  It  is  uncertain  whether  the  sanctuaries  of  Apollo  at  Pytho  (Delphoi)  and  of 


206  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

Athene  at  Troy  (II.  V  446,  vi  88,  vn  83,  etc.)  and  another  of 
Athene  at  Athens  (II.  II  549,  Od.  vii  81).  The  sanctuary  of 
Apollo  at  Chryse  is  also  once  described  as  a  temple  (II.  I  39)^ 
though  the  account  of  the  sacrifice  {ib.  440  ff.)  suggests  an  open- 
air  shrine.  Besides  these  we  have  a  general  reference  to  temples 
among  the  Phaeacians  (Od.  VI  10)  and  a  vow  made  by  Odysseus' 
followers  to  construct  a  temple  to  Helios  on  their  return  home 
{ib.  XII  346).  Now  it  is  held  that  all  these  passages  belong  to  a 
late  stage  in  the  growth  of  the  poems  and  that  in  their  original 
form  temples  were  unknown.  Sanctuaries  of  the  earlier  period 
are  described  only  by  such  terms  as  dXao<i  or  refMcvof  /Sty/iO'?  re 
6vnet,<;.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  grove  and  the  open- 
air  shrine  represent  more  primitive  types  of  sanctuary  than  the 
temple.  But  the  advocates  of  this  theory  seem  to  have  over- 
looked the  fact  that  among  many  peoples  the  more  primitive 
and  the  more  developed  forms  of  sanctuary  are  found  existing 
side  by  side^  Thus  beside  the  great  temple  at  Upsala,  the  chief 
sanctuary  of  the  North,  there  stood  a  grove  which  appears  to 
have  been  regarded  with  still  greater  veneration,  even  down  to 
the  very  end  of  heathen  times.  Close  by  was  a  spring  in  which 
human  victims  were  sacrificed  ^  This  case  shows  how  entirely 
unjustifiable  it  is  to  assume  the  non-existence  of  a  temple,  when 
only  a  shrine  or  sacred  grove  happens  to  be  mentioned.  We 
may  cite  as  an  example  the  proposed  sacrifice  to  Spercheios  in 
II.   XXIII    145  ff.^     In    general  however  the   Homeric  evidence 

Poseidon  at  Scheria  (11.  ix  404  f.,  Od.  vin  79  ff.,  vi  266  f.)  are  regarded  as  temples  ; 
cf.  Cauer,  op-  cit.  p.  301  f.     In  the  former  case  however  it  is  decidedly  probable. 

1  Many  well-known  survivals  of  such  usage  occur  in  Greece  itself. 

2  Adam  Brem.  iv  27  :  corpora  autem  suspenduntur  in  lucum  qui  proximus  est 
templo.  is  enim  lucus  tarn  sacer  est  gentilibus  ut  singulae  arbores  eius  ex  morte  uel 
taho  imnwlatoriim  diuinae  credantur.  Cf.  also  the  (contemporary)  schol.  11^:  prope 
illud  templum  est  arbor  maxima  late  ramos  extendens,  semper  uiridis  in  hietne  et 
aestate,  cuius  ilia  generis  sit  nemo  sett,  ibi  etiam  est  fans  ubi  sacrificia  paganorum 
solcnt  exerceri  et  homo  uiuus  immergi.  qui  dum  non  inuenitur  ratum  erit  uotum 
populi. 

3  STrepxei',   dXXwj  <Toi  76  iraTr]p  ijpi^craTO  TlrjXeOs 
Kftffi  fie  voar-qcravra  <p[kr}v  is  iraTplSa  yaiav 
ffol  re  Khfirfv  Kepieiv  pi^eiv  6'  ieprjv  eKardfi^riv, 
■wevTTjKovTa  5'  Ivopxo-  'Tap'  airrddi  /x-^X'  UpeOaeiv 
is  Tn]yd.s  odi  roi  rifievos  ^up.bs  re  dv-rjeis. 


X]  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  20/ 

clearly  suggests  that  temples — and  the  same  may  possibly  be 
the  case  with  images — were  chiefly  to  be  found  in  cities,  while 
the  more  primitive  forms  of  sanctuary  remained  in  less  populous 
places. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  to  any  student  of  comparative  religion 
the  argument  derived  from  the  references  to  sanctuaries  will 
appear  entirely  worthless.  The  argument  against  the  antiquity 
of  the  round  shield  also  can  hardly  be  maintained.  Of  the  rest 
all  except  the  one  based  on  the  use  of  the  metals  contain  a 
certain  element  of  doubt.  But  even  if  we  grant  their  validity  in 
every  case  it  cannot  be  said  that  either  individually  or  collectively 
they  necessitate  the  lapse  of  a  long  interval  between  the  earlier 
and  later  portions  of  the  poems.  If  the  interval  had  amounted 
to  anything  like  three  centuries  discrepancies  of  a  far  more 
striking  character  must  have  come  to  light. 

As  yet  we  have  taken  no  account  of  linguistic  inconsistencies. 
The  poems  as  we  have  them  present  a  medley  of  forms  belonging 
to  different  ages  and  different  dialects.  But  these  inconsistencies 
appear  everywhere;  it  is  not  the  case  that  certain  portions  of  the 
poems  contain  only  early  forms  and  others  only  late  ones.  The 
Odyssey  is  said  to  contain  a  certain  number  of  apparently  late 
usages,  especially  of  prepositions  and  conjunctions,  which  are 
wanting  or  only  occur  rarely  in  the  Iliad.  It  is  held  also  that 
within  the  poems  themselves  earlier  and  later  portions  can  be 
distinguished  to  a  certain  extent  by  similar  differences  of  usage. 
But  the  evidence  on  the  whole  is  slight  and  generally  somewhat 
ambiguous^;  and  consequently  linguistic  criteria  have  as  a  rule 
played  only  a  subordinate  part  in  the  attempts  which  have  been 
made  to  determine  the  stratification  of  the  poems.  We  must 
conclude  then  either  that  the  later  parts  were  composed  in  an 
artificial  type  of  language,  thoroughly  permeated  with  archaisms, 
or  that  the  earlier  parts  have  undergone  a  very  considerable 
amount  of  modernisation.  Indeed  the  latter  explanation  must 
be  admitted  to  some  extent  in  any  case ;  for  relatively  modern 
forms  occur  frequently  in  what  are  usually  regarded  as  the  very 

^  The  Appendices  in  Miss  Stawell's  Homer  and  the  Iliad  (pp.  238 — 326)  suggest 
that  many  of  the  instances  commonly  cited  are  due  to  insufficient  consideration. 


208  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

earliest  parts  of  the  poems.  But  if  the  preservation  of  the  poems 
was  dependent  on  oral  tradition  for  any  considerable  length  of 
time  it  is  very  difficult  to  set  a  limit  to  the  operations  of  such  a 
process.  In  Anglo-Saxon  poems — even  in  those  which  were  not 
entirely  dependent  on  oral  tradition — modernisation  prevailed  to 
such  an  extent  that  archaic  forms  disappeared  practically  every- 
where, while  substitutions  of  one  word  for  another  were  very 
frequent.  The  more  elaborate  character  of  Greek  metre  doubtless 
acted  as  a  check  on  this  tendency  to  change,  but  at  the  same 
time  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  its  importance  in  the  history  of 
Homeric  poetry  has  been  greatly  underrated. 

On  the  question  of  dialect  something  more  must  be  said.  It 
is  true  no  doubt  that  the  language  of  the  poems  as  we  have  them 
must  be  regarded  as  Ionic — but  only  with  certain  reservations. 
In  the  first  place  we  have  to  note  the  regular  preservation  of  Ji-^ 
which  in  strict  Ionic — the  language  of  the  Asiatic  coast — was  lost 
in  the  seventh  century,  if  not  earlier.  Again,  we  find  a  con- 
siderable number  of  forms  which  cannot  be  assigned  to  any 
Ionic  dialect,  e.g.  such  as  contain  -a-  (Xao'<?,  ^ Kipelhao,  al')(jjbrira(jov). 
Special  attention  must  be  paid  to  forms  which  are  definitely 
Aeolic,  such  as  Triavpe'i,  a/xfie,  epe/Bewof;.  Whatever  may  be  the 
explanation  of  the  preservation  of  //-,  it  is  universally  agreed  that 
the  Aeolic  element  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  history  of  Homeric 
poetry.  Some  scholars  indeed  hold  that  the  poems  were 
originally  composed  in  Aeolic  and  that  their  present  form  is 
practically  an  Ionic  translation.  The  more  general  view  how- 
ever is  that  Ionic  was  the  language  of  epic  composition  from  the 
beginning  and  that  such  forms  as  -jria-vpe^  and  a/jLfie  are  derived 
from  early  Aeolic  lays  on  which  the  epics  were  for  the  most  part 
based. 

The  legends  as  to  Homer's  birthplace  are  perhaps  not  with- 
out significance  for  this  question.  In  ancient  times,  from  Pindar^ 
downwards,  Smyrna's  claim  to  this  honour  was  the  one  most 
generally  recognised,  and  the  majority  of  modern  scholars  are 
inclined  to  the  view  that  the  birthplace  of  Homeric  poetry  is  to 
be  sought  in  or  around  that  city.     Now  Smyrna  was  originally 

^  Fragm.  189,  Boeckh. 


I 


X]  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  209 

an  Aeolic  state,  but  was  captured  by  the  lonians  of  Colophon', 
apparently  towards  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  from  which 
time  onwards  it  appears  as  Ionic.  The  mixture  of  dialect  found 
in  the  poems — an  older  stratum  of  Aeolic  underlying  a  later 
stratum  of  Ionic — would  therefore  be  perfectly  in  accord  with 
what  we  know  of  the  history  of  the  city,  although  unfortunately 
no  early  inscriptions  are  extant^. 

The  most  serious  competitor  of  Smyrna  was  Chios,  the  claim 
of  which  found  favour  with  several  of  our  earliest  authorities. 
Especially  important  is  the  fact  that  in  a  fragment  published 
among  the  remains  of  Simonides  of  Ceos  (fragm.  85,  Bergk),  but 
now  frequently  attributed  to  Semonides  of  Samos,  who  lived 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  a  verse  of  the  Iliad 
(VI  146)  is  ascribed  to  the  '  man  of  Chios.'  In  this  island  also 
there  dwelt  in  later  times  a  clan  called  'OfMrjpCSai'  who  claimed 
descent  from  the  poet.  But  here  again  there  is  a  tradition  that 
the  population  was  at  least  in  part  Aeolic ^  Moreover,  though 
the  language  of  the  earliest  extant  inscriptions  is  Ionic  in  its 
main  features,  it  possesses  certain  Aeolic  characteristics,  especially 
the  change  of  on  to  oi^  before  s  (e.g.  Trprj^oiai,  \d/3coLai  against 
Ion.  irprj^ovai,,  Xd^coai).  There  is  no  record  of  an  Ionic  conquest 
of  the  island,  as  in  the  case  of  Smyrna,  but  we  know  that  it  did 
not  enter  the  Ionic  confederation  until  a  comparatively  late 
period,  probably  the  seventh  century®. 

It  appears  then  that  the  peculiarities  of  Homeric  language 
can  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  by  the  history  of  either 
Smyrna  or   Chios'".     But   now  we   are   confronted  with   a  very 

^  Cf.  Mimnermos,  fragm.  9.  5  f .  (Bergk),  Herodotus,  I  r.so,  etc.  According  to 
Pausanias  (v  8.  7)  Smyrna  had  become  Ionic  before  the  year  688  ;  cf.  Wilamowitz- 
Mollendorff,  S.-B.  der  Akad.  der  Wiss.  zu  Berlin,  1906,  p.  52,  note. 

"^  Acquaintance  with  the  district  round  Smyrna  is  shown  by  the  reference  to  the 
figure  of  '  Niobe'  on  Mt  Sipyios  in  II.  xxiv  614  ff.,  although  the  identification  of  this 
figure  is  still  disputed. 

*  On  the  problems  connected  with  this  name  see  Allen,  Classical  Quarterly, 
Ii35ff- 

^  Stephanus  Byzant.  s.  v.  BoXi(r<r6s. 

*  But  not  the  corresponding  change  of  ati  to  ai  (cf.  rds,  -Kaaa). 

*  Cf.  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff,  op.  cit.  p.  52  f. 

^  The  Ionic  states  of  Clazomenai  and  Phocaia,  to  the  west  and  north-west  of 
Smyrna,  seem  to  have  been  founded  at  a  comparatively  late  period,  though  probably 


210  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

grave  difficulty.  The  same  scholars  who  hold  that  Smyrna  was 
the  birthplace  of  Homeric  poetry  yet  insist  that  the  language  of 
the  epics  themselves  was  never  anything  else  than  Ionic,  although 
they  allow  that  the  Iliad  was  nearly  complete  some  considerable 
time  before  the  conquest  of  Smyrna.  This  position  is  quite 
incomprehensible  to  me.  The  only  explanation  offered,  so  far 
as  I  am  aware,  is  that  the  language  of  this  district  may  have 
been  of  a  mixed  character^  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  when  the 
coast  was  first  occupied  settlers  may  have  come  from  many 
different  quarters.  But  when  Mimnermos  speaks  of  the  capture 
of  '  Aeolic  Smyrna'  we  are  surely  not  justified  in  assuming  that 
the  city  had  become  lonicised  before  that  time.  On  the  other 
hand  the  supposition  that  the  two  dialects  were  not  yet 
differentiated  to  any  considerable  extent  appears  to  me  to  be 
irreconcilable  with  the  evidence  of  the  poems  themselves  as  well 
as  with  all  that  we  know  of  the  history  of  the  Greek  dialects. 

The  question  which  we  are  discussing  is  one  which  concerns 
not  only  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  together  perhaps  with  certain 
Hymns  and  other  Homeric  poems,  but  also  the  various  works 
attributed  to  Hesiod.  In  particular  we  may  note  the  Works  and 
Days  and  the  Theogony,  both  of  which  claim  to  be  of  Boeotian 
origin.  Whether  by  chance  or  not  they  contain  few  forms^ 
which  are  peculiar  to  Aeolic  proper,  i.e.  the  dialect  of  Asiatic 
Aeolis.  But  in  all  other  respects  their  language  is  of  the 
Homeric  type,  i.e.  generally  speaking  Ionic,  though  with  certain 
reservations,  notably  that  f  is  generally  kept  and  d  frequently 
occurs  before  o,  w.  Now  it  cannot  be  contended  seriously  that 
this  extraordinary  mixed  dialect  sprang  up  naturally  on  both 
sides  of  the  Aegean.  The  only  alternative  however  is  to  suppose 
that  Boeotian  poets  borrowed  it  from  Asia.  But  is  this  really 
jprobable  at  such  a  time  ^ 

Before    leaving    this    subject    we    must    notice    briefly   the 

in  the  eighth  century.  Since  the  promontory  of  'kpyewov,  opposite  Chios  and  to  the 
south-west  of  Erythrai,  has  an  Aeolic  name,  it  is  possible  that  the  whole  of  the  coast 
north  of  Teos  was  once  occupied  by  Aeolians. 

^  Cf.  Wilamowitz-MoUendorff,  op.  cit.  p.  75  and  (for  a  criticism)  Cauer,  Grund- 
fragen-,  p.  181  ff. 

'^  The  Shield  of  Heracles  contains  a  number  of  clearly  Aeolic  forms  ((i/^/tes, 
O/i/At,  etc.). 


X]  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  211 

alternative  theory  that  the  Homeric  poems  were  originally  com- 
posed in  Aeolic.  According  to  the  form  in  which  this  theory  has 
become  most  widely  known  they  were  translated  into  Ionic  at  a 
comparatively  late  date — towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  century^ 
It  is  rather  a  serious  objection  to  this  hypothesis  that  the  poems 
contain  no  trace  of  late  Aeolic  characteristics,  such  as  the  change 
of  n  to  i  before  s  (e.g.  Toi<i,  iralaa).  Further,  if  the  poems  had 
been  known  so  long  in  Aeolic,  though  doubt  might  have  pre- 
vailed as  to  Homer's  birthplace,  the  fact  that  he  was  an  Aeolian 
could  never  have  been  called  in  question.  Above  all  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  need  of  a  translation  could  have  arisen  at 
such  a  date,  for  the  Aeolic  dialect  was  then  well  known  through- 
out the  Greek  world  through  the  poems  of  Alcaeus  and  Sappho. 
On  the  other  hand  there  can  be  no  possible  objection  in  prin- 
ciple to  the  idea  that  the  poems  have  undergone  a  change  of 
dialect.  We  have  seen  that  a  large  proportion  of  Anglo-Saxon 
poetry  has  passed  through  a  similar  process,  generally  from  one 
English  dialect  to  another,  but  occasionally,  as  in  the  case  of 
Genesis  (vv.  235 — 851),  from  a  continental  to  an  English  dialect. 
In  some  few  cases  we  still  have  parallel  texts  preserved  in 
different  dialects^  Indeed,  when  the  poetry  of  one  community 
becomes  current  in  another  community,  it  would  seem  that 
under  certain  conditions  such  changes  were  not  merely  possible 
but  even  inevitable.  This  is  a  question  to  which  we  shall 
have  to  return  in  the  course  of  the  next  few  pages. 

There  is  still  one  vexed  question  which  we  have  not  as  yet 
touched  upon,  namely  the  relationship  of  the  Homeric  poems 
to  the  art  of  writing.  Wolf  and  his  immediate  successors  held 
that  the  art  was  unknown  when  these  poems  came  into  existence. 

^  Cf.  Pick,  Die  homerische  Odyssee  (1883),  and  Die  homerische  Ilias  {1886),  where 
the  poems  are  reconstructed  in  their  original  Aeolic  form. 

2  E.g.  the  two  texts  of  Riddle  xxxvi  (both  printed  in  Sweet's  Oldest  English 
Texts,  p.  i5of.)  and  the  texts  of  Caedmon's  Hymn  from  the  Moore  MS.  of  Bede's 
Eccles.  History  [ib.  p.  149)  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  version  (iv  24).  Reference  may 
also  be  made  to  the  Dream  of  the  Cross  and  the  extracts  given  in  the  inscription  on 
the  Ruthwell  Cross.  A  portion  of  the  Old  Saxon  Genesis  is  printed,  together  with 
the  Anglo-Saxon  version,  in  Cook  and  Tinker's  Translations  from  Old  English  Poetry, 
p.  i84f. 


212  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

Among  more  recent  scholars  however  the  general  tendency  has 
been  to  regard  this  view  as  mistaken.  Some  leading  authorities 
even  hold  that  considerable  portions  of  the  poems  were  written 
down  from  the  time  of  their  composition. 

The  poems  themselves  contain  only  one  reference  to  writing, 
namely  in  II.  VI  i68  fif.,  where  it  is  stated  that  Proitos  sent 
Bellerophon  to  Lycia  "  and  gave  him  baneful  tokens,  writing 
many  deadly  things  in  a  folded  tablet,  which  he  bade  him  show 
to  his  (Proitos')  father-in-law,  with  a  view  to  his  own  destruc- 
tion ^"  So  long  as  no  further  evidence  was  forthcoming  there 
was  a  natural  inclination  either  to  regard  this  passage  as  an 
interpolation  or  to  interpret  it  as  denoting  something  which 
could  not  properly  be  called  writing.  But  of  late  years  archae- 
ological investigation  has  brought  to  light,  especially  in  Crete, 
numerous  inscriptions  dating  from  very  remote  times,  and  there 
cannot  now  be  any  question  as  to  the  antiquity  of  writing  in  the 
southern  Aegean.  Moreover  the  Homeric  poets  themselves  can 
hardly  have  been  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  such  an  art,  for 
rock-hewn  figures  with  inscriptions  dating  from  pre-Homeric 
times — including  one  which  has  been  identified  with  the  figure 
of  '  Niobe'  mentioned  in  II.  XXIV  614  ff. — are  to  be  found  quite 
close  to  the  Asiatic  coast. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  this  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact  that  the 
whole  28,CK)0  verses  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  contain  only  one 
reference  to  writing.  The  significance  of  this  may  be  appre- 
ciated by  turning  to  modern  Servian  poetry,  which  abounds 
with  allusions  to  letters  and  written  orders,  although  the  min- 
strels themselves  are  quite  ignorant  both  of  reading  and  writing. 
It  is  true  that  in  Beowulf  we  find  only  one  direct  reference  to 
writing.  But  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  together  contain  nearly  nine 
times  as  many  verses  as  Beowulf 

On  the  whole  it  seems  to  me  that  the  evidence  for  the  anti- 
quity of  writing  given  above  does  not  prove  exactly  what  it  is 
commonly  supposed  to  do.  The  inscriptions  on  the  rock-hewn 
figures  are  Hittite.     The  ancient  Cretan  inscriptions  have  not 

^  irifiwe  5i  fiiu  AvKlTjvdf  irbpev   5'  6  ye  arjfiaTa  \vypa, 

ypdxl/as  if  irlvaKi  tttvkti^  dvfjio(f>66pa  iroWa, 
dei^ai  8'  rji'dyyetv  (}  irevdepi^  ocpp    dir6\oi.TO. 


X]  THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  21 3 

yet  been  deciphered,  and  in  view  of  the  later  inscriptions  found 
at  Praisos  the  probability  as  yet  is  distinctly  against  their  being 
in  the  Greek  language.  But  in  any  case  they  date  from  ages 
long  anterior  to  Homeric  times,  and  there  is  nothing  to  prove 
their  continuity  with  the  writing  of  the  historical  period.  With 
regard  to  the  passage  in  II.  VI  168  ff.  it  is  to  be  observed  firstly 
that  Proitos  is  one  of  the  very  earliest  persons  mentioned  in  the 
poems — some  three  generations  removed  from  the  characters  of 
the  Trojan  story — and  secondly  that  the  curious  phraseology 
seems  rather  to  suggest  that  the  poet  was  speaking  of  something 
which  he  did  not  clearly  understand.  On  the  whole  then  it  is 
much  to  be  doubted  whether  writing  was  a  current  and  native 
practice  during  the  period  when  the  poems  were  composed. 

A  reservation  should  perhaps  be  made  with  regard  to  the 
latest  elements  in  the  poems.  Although  definite  evidence  is 
wanting,  the  beginnings  of  the  Greek  alphabet  may  quite  pro- 
bably go  back  to  the  ninth  century,  and  it  may  very  well  be  that 
the  poems  had  not  then  attained  their  final  form.  But  it  should 
not  be  assumed  that  the  alphabet  was  introduced  simultaneously 
throughout  the  Greek  world.  Some  districts  may  have  acquired 
it  generations  before  others,  and  Aeolis  (including  even  Chios 
and  Smyrna)  was  probably  not  one  of  the  more  advanced. 
Further,  we  must  admit  that  in  all  probability  its  use  was  at 
first  very  limited.  From  all  analogies  we  should  expect  that 
it  was  employed  for  inscriptions,  correspondence,  etc.  for  a  very 
long  time  before  it  was  made  to  serve  any  literary  purpose. 
Such  apparently  was  the  case  with  the  alphabet  of  ancient 
Rome  and  with  the  Runic  alphabet  almost  throughout  its 
history.  Unless  the  conditions  in  Greece  were  quite  exceptional 
we  should  not  expect  the  alphabet  to  come  into  contact  with 
heroic  poetry  for  a  considerable  time. 

The  theory  that  certain  portions  of  the  poems  were  written 
down  from  the  beginning  presupposes  of  course  a  use  of  writing 
quite  different  from  that  which  is  brought  before  us  in  the  story 
of  Bellerophon.     This  theory^  is,  and  necessarily  must  be,  bound 

*  The  analysis  of  the  Odyssey  given  by  Prof.  v.  Wilamowitz-MollendorflF  admittedly 
postulates  a  written  text   {ffom.    Untersuch.   p.   293).     But  I  cannot  assent  to  the 


214  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

up  with  another  theory,  which  we  have  already  discussed,  that 
these  portions  date  from  a  period  not  earher  than  the  seventh 
century.  Our  discussion  has  led  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
evidence  for  the  latter  theory  is  unsatisfactory.  But,  apart  from 
this,  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  'literary'  portions,  which  are  said 
to  amount  to  several  thousand  verses,  should  contain  no  refer- 
ence, direct  or  indirect,  to  the  use  of  writing.  In  Beowulf  we 
find  only  one  direct  reference  to  writing  (v.  1694  f) — an  inscrip- 
tion in  Runic  letters  such  as  had  long  been  in  use.  But  in  the 
Christian  additions  or  'interpolations'  we  meet  with  three 
examples  of  the  verb  scrifan  {forscrifajt,  gescrifan — from  Lat. 
scribere),  which  of  course  is  indirect  evidence  for  the  use  of 
writing,  though  in  a  different  language^  If  large  portions  of 
the  Homeric  poems  were  really  of  literary  origin  the  authors 
could  scarcely  have  failed  to  betray  themselves  by  usages  of 
this  kind,  even  though  they  deliberately  avoided  all  mention  of 
writing. 

In  addition  to  this  general  consideration  we  have  to  take 
account  of  the  linguistic  difficulties  discussed  above.  We  have 
seen  that  Hesiod's  works  show  almost  the  same  form  of  language 
as  the  Homeric  poems,  although  the  Boeotian  dialect  was  quite 
different  from  anything  spoken  on  the  other  side  of  the  Aegean. 
Did  Hesiod,  who  lived  in  the  eighth  century,  probably  before  the 
Ionian  conquest  of  Smyrna,  really  employ  the  '  impure  Ionic'  in 
which  his  poems  have  come  down  to  us  .-'  He  himself  says 
(W.  and  D.  650  ff.)  that  he  had  never  crossed  the  sea  except 
(once  apparently)  to  Chalcis.  Presumably  then  his  knowledge  of 
heroic  poetry  was  derived  either  from  Boeotia,  where  he  lived, 
or  from  Cyme  in  Aeolis,  from  whence  his  father  had  emigrated. 
But  Cyme  never  came  into  Ionian  hands.  Are  we  to  sup- 
pose then  that  either  here  or  in  Boeotia  poets  were  already 
employing  as  their  vehicle  a  form  of  language  which  according 
to  the  theory  under  discussion  owed  its  existence  (whether  in 

proposition  that  the  Catalogue  of  Ships  in  itself  must  come  from  a  written  source. 
This  list  scarcely  differs  in  principle  from  the  catalogues  of  Widsith. 

■*  Further  indirect  evidence,  of  native  origin,  is  supplied  by  i\\Q  vford  facensta/as 
(O.  Norse  feiknstafir)  in  v.  1018,  if  the  original  meaning  of  this  compound  was 
'harmful  runes'  (used  magically).     Cf.  also  vv.  317,  382,  458,  1753. 


X]  THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  21$ 

ordinary  speech  or  only  in  poetry)  to  certain  political  changes 
in  a  third  district — changes  too  which  had  hardly  begun  much 
before  the  time  of  Hesiod  ?  This  h\'pothesis  seems  to  me  quite 
incredible^ 

On  the  other  hand  if  Hesiod's  poems  have  undergone  a 
change  of  dialect  since  their  original  composition  may  not  the 
Homeric  poems  have  passed  through  the  same  process  ?  In 
this  case  of  course  such  a  change  would  come  about  quite 
naturally  if  Smyrna  or  Chios  was  the  original  home  of  the 
poems.  But  here  we  must  notice  a  curious  feature  in  the 
'epic  dialect'  to  which  we  have  already  referred.  Except  in 
Aeolic  forms — and  this  exception  deserves  to  be  remarked — 
the  poems  almost  always  preserve  initial  h-"-.  This  is  a  char- 
acteristic which  the  '  epic  dialect '  shares  with  western  or  Euro- 
pean Ionic  but  not  with  the  language  of  the  Asiatic  coastl  Its 
presence  raises  a  distinct  difficulty  in  the  way  of  supposing  that 
the  poems  were  lonicised  in  their  original  home. 

Now  if  the  Homeric  poems  had  been  written  down  in  Aeolic 
and  preserved  in  literary  form  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  they 
would  have  retained  their  original  dialect,  just  like  the  works 
of  Alcman,  Alcaeus,  and  Sappho.  It  must  not  be  argued  that 
Ionic  was  the  proper  language  of  the  epic,  Doric  and  Aeolic 
of  the  lyric;  for  if  the  Homeric  poems  had  become  generally 
known  in  Aeolic  nothing  could  have  prevented  this  dialect 
from  becoming  the  language  of  the  epic  also.  We  may  assume 
then  that  they  were  not  transmitted  in  written  Aeolic.  But  the 
same  argument  really  militates  against  the  theory  that  they  were 
written  in  Asiatic  Ionic*,  though  in  this  case  the  difference  of 
dialect  is  less  striking. 

'  It  may  be  added  that  we  really  know  nothing  of  the  Ionic  of  Hesiod's  time. 
It  is  quite  uncertain  how  far  it  had  already  developed  those  characteristics  which  we 
find  in  our  texts. 

''■  The  few  exceptional  forms  such  as  (r')  oi5Xo»'  (Od.  XVII  343)  may  be  due  to  fairly 
late  scribes  familiar  with  (eastern)  Ionic  texts. 

^  We  may  note  also  the  absence  of  the  literary  Ionic  forms  /cdre,  kws,  etc. 

*  It  is  true  that  we  do  not  know  exactly  when  h-  was  lost.  But  before  that 
change  took  place  H  cannot  have  been  used  for  e ;  consequently  a  wholesale 
fitT ay pa.tJi)jLa.T Iff yibi  would  be  involved  (doubtless  also  affecting  the  representation  of  ^), 
iust  as  in  the  case  of  Athens. 


2l6  THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

A  form  of  language  practically  identical  with  that  of  the 
epics  appears  in  the  remains  of  several  poets  of  the  seventh 
and  sixth  centuries,  such  as  Archilochos  and  Solon.  The  only 
noticeable  difference  is  in  the  proportion  of  non-Ionic  forms 
which  they  use.  Now  since  these  authors  belonged  to  quite 
different  districts  we  must,  if  we  are  to  trust  our  evidence, 
infer  the  existence  of  a  kind  of  literary  language  at  this  time. 
Its  difference  from  Asiatic  Ionic  is  of  course  comparatively 
slight,  and  in  the  texts  which  have  come  down  to  us  it  is  not 
always  carefully  observed'.  Still  there  is  a  sufficient  amount  of 
regularity  to  show  that  it  was  generally  recognised. 

The  true  home  of  this  literary  language  must  not  be  sought 
in  Athens,  but  rather  in  Euboea  or  the  Cyclades;  and  we  may 
probably  attribute  its  spread,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  influence 
of  the  poems  of  Archilochos.  But  it  certainly  affected  the 
writing  of  Attic  for  some  two  centuries,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  was  thoroughly  domiciled  in  Athens  at  quite  an 
early  date — probably  in  the  seventh  century.  I  cannot  see  any 
objection  therefore  to  supposing  that  it  was  in  Athens  that  both 
the  Homeric  and  Hesiodic  poems  acquired  those  peculiar  lin- 
guistic characteristics  which  we  comprehend  under  the  term 
'epic  dialect.'  This  of  course  brings  us  back  to  the  story  that 
the  poems  were  collected  or  written  down  by  order  of  Peisis- 
tratos.  The  evidence  for  the  story  is  late,  and  its  truth  is  hotly 
contested  by  many  scholars.  But  at  all  events  it  has  the  merit 
of  providing  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  linguistic  pheno- 
mena. 

Certainly,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  analogy  of  other  peoples, 
heroic  poetry  would  not  by  any  means  be  among  the  first  species 
of  literature  to  get  committed  to  writing.  There  is  no  reason 
whatever  for  supposing  that  anything  of  this  kind  was  written 
down  in  England  before  the  eighth  century,  i.e.  at  least  a  century 
after  the  language  was  first  applied  to  literary  purposes,  in 
Aethelberht's  time.  The  same  remark  seems  to  be  true  of 
Ireland,  Germany  and  the  North,  while  Bosnian  heroic  poetry 
is  being  written  down  only  in  our  own  generation,  and  not  by 
natives  of  the  country.     It  is  only  natural  therefore  to  expect 

'  Cf.  Hoftmann,  Griech.  Dial,  ni,  p.  549  f.  ;  Fick,  Neue  Jahrbiicher,  i  504  ff. 


X]  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  21/ 

that  the  Homeric  poems  would  be  written  down  according  to  an 
orthography  which  was  already  well  established. 

This  orthography  no  doubt  represents  more  or  less  truly  the 
form  in  which  the  poems  were  recited  in  Athens  at  the  time. 
But  does  it  also  represent  the  form  in  which  they  were  recited 
at  (let  us  say)  Sicyon  ?  That  is  a  question  upon  which  we  have 
no  direct  evidence.  But  it  is  worth  noting  that  in  Doric  and 
other  non-Ionic  states  we  find  a  number  of  ancient  inscriptions 
in  hexameters  or  elegiacs  which  contain  epic  words  and  forms. 
We  may  note  especially  the  Gen,  sg.  ending  -olo,  e.g.  KucriyveToio, 
oBoio,  ApaOdoLo,  and  above  all  false  imitations  of  epic  forms, 
such  as  TXacTKiafro^.  But  in  all  these  inscriptions  Ionic  char- 
acteristics are  conspicuously  absents  Does  this  mean  that 
wherever  the  heroic  poems  were  introduced  the  rhapsodists 
tried  to  accommodate  them,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  language 
of  the  district?  But  if  so,  is  it  possible  that  the  Ionic  element 
in  our  texts  is  wholly  due  to  the  rhapsodists  }  A  Chalcidian 
or  Naxian  or  Athenian  audience  would  certainly  experience  at 
least  as  much  difficulty  in  following  a  purely  Aeolic  Iliad  as  a 
southern  English  audience  would  have  in  listening  to  a  purely 
Northumbrian  or  Mercian  Beowulf.  On  the  other  hand  an 
Iliad  lonicised  in  Chalcis  or  Naxos  would  be  easily  intelligible 
in  Athens^ 

^  Cauer,  Delectus  Inscr.  Graec.  83,  84,  91.  We  may  compare  also  such  epic 
expressions  as  evpvxopo,  yaias  awo  irarpidos,  noXvfjLeXo,  /cXe/oj  airdirov  (id.  54,  83,  445, 
202),  and,  more  particularly,  an  inscription  on  a  bronze  discus  from  Cephallenia 
(cf.  Cook,  C/ass.  /Review,  xili  77  f.)  : 

ExcoiSa  fi  aved€Ke  Ai/oj  (fopoiv  fx.eya\oio 

XO-^Keop  hot  viKaae  Ke<pa\avas  fieyadvfios 
(cf.  Horn.  Hymn,  xxxill  9;  II.  n  631). 

*  The  same  remark  is  true  of  heroic  names  occurring  in  Doric  inscriptions, 
e.g.  ffKa^a,  Ke^piovas,  Aai(po^os  on  a  vase  (Cauer,  o/>.  cit.  78)  found  near  Caere.  So 
also  with  the  heroic  names  used  by  Pindar  and  other  non- Ionic  poets — not  to 
mention  the  Latin  forms.  Yet  these  poets  use  the  Ionic  forms  of  foreign  names,  such 
as  M^Soi '  (Cypr.  Ma-to-i),  which  had  come  to  them  presumably  through  Ionic 
channels.  On  the  other  hand  we  find  in  inscriptions  on  Chalcidian  vases  more 
purely  Ionic  forms,  e.g.  Aivees  {ib.  545),  than  those  preserved  in  our  text.  These 
seem  to  count  against  any  place  except  Athens  as  the  home  of  the  final  form  of  the 
'  epic  dialect.' 

*  From  the  fact  that  Pindar  and  other  non-Ionic  authors  use  what  is  apparently  an 
Ionic   form — indeed,  strictly  speaking,  a  western   Ionic  form— in  the  poet's  name 


2l8  THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

At  all  events  we  have  seen  that  there  is  a  very  serious 
objection  on  chronological  grounds  to  the  view  that  Hesiod's 
poems  were  composed  in  a  form  of  'impure  Ionic'  borrowed 
from  the  Asiatic  coast.  In  this  case  it  is  surely  far  more 
probable  that  the  Ionic  element  is  due  to  the  rhapsodists, 
whether  in  Chalcis  or  Athens.  But  is  there  any  real  reason 
for  denying  that  the  Homeric  poems  may  have  had  a  similar 
experience?  This  is  a  question  which  I  do  not  feel  qualified 
to  answer.  But  it  seems  to  me  to  deserve  more  attention  from 
scholars  than  it  has  received  as  yet. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  seen  that  the  Homeric  poems  con- 
tain elements  of  great  antiquity.  Although  we  have  no  means 
of  fixing  an  exact  date  for  these  elements,  we  can  hardly  doubt 
that  they  originated  at  a  time  before  iron  had  come  into  general 
use  for  weapons.  According  to  the  prevailing  opinion  of  archae- 
ologists this  innovation  cannot  have  taken  place  after  the  tenth 
century.  We  need  not  suppose  that  any  considerable  portions 
of  the  poems  in  their  present  form  date  from  such  an  early 
period.  But  the  '  type '  must  have  been  fixed  by  that  time,  and 
to  a  considerable  extent  also  the  subject-matter. 

Still  more  clearly  we  have  seen  that  there  is  no  ground  for 
supposing  that  the  earlier  and  later  elements  are  separated  from 
one  another  by  a  wide  interval.  For  the  idea  that  the  earlier 
elements  reflect  the  conditions  of  the  last  age  of  Mycenean 
splendour — probably  about  the  thirteenth  century — while  the 
later  elements  betray  acquaintance  with  conditions  of  the  seventh 
century,  we  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  justification.  The 
period  intervening  between  the  Mycenean  age  and  the  beginning 

("O/Miypos),  while  they  give  the  names  of  the  heroes  themselves  in  non-Ionic  form,  we 
are  justified  in  concluding  that  they  had  acquired  the  former  from  a  different 
(presumably  literary)  source.  Certainly  the  earliest  references  to  the  poet  come  from 
Ionic  authors.  Again,  Thucydides  (in  104)  is  clearly  recording  a  generally  accepted 
opinion  when  he  quotes  the  Hymn  to  the  Delian  Apollo  under  Homer's  name  ;  and 
I  can  see  no  reason  for  doubting  the  identity  of  Semonides'  Xtos  avf\p  (cf.  p.  209) 
with  the  author  of  this  poem  (v.  172:  Tv<p\bs  dvr)p,  oUeT  5e  Xioj  In  TrauraXo^crcrj;).  The 
Hymn  dates  probably  from  the  period  when  Chios  was  in  process  of  becoming 
lonicised.  At  such  a  time  the  repertoire  of  a  Chian  minstrel  would  have  an  exception- 
ally favourable  opportunity  of  gaining  currency  (naturally  under  his  own  name)  in 
Ionic  circles — in  the  Cyclades  probably  as  well  as  in  Ionia  itself. 


I 


X]  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  219 

of  the  classical  age  is  certainly  one  which  has  as  yet  yielded  com- 
paratively little  to  archaeological  research.  But  our  discussion 
has  led  us  to  infer  that  the  conditions  of  life  reflected  in  the 
poems  throughout  belong  to  some  part  of  this  period,  rather 
than  that  they  are  due  to  a  combination  taken  from  the  pre- 
ceding and  following  ages^  with  a  more  or  less  blank  interval 
of  some  five  or  six  centuries. 

I  have  spoken  advisedly  of  earlier  and  later  'elements' 
rather  than  of  earlier  and  later  '  portions '  in  the  poems.  Ela- 
borate analyses,  such  as  that  proposed  for  the  Odyssey  by 
Prof  von  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff,  are  admittedly  hopeless 
unless  we  assent  to  the  hypothesis  that  the  person  responsible 
for  the  final  form  of  the  poem  possessed  a  written  text ;  and 
we  have  seen  that  this  hypothesis  is  open  to  grave  objections. 
The  existence  of  dififerent  strata  in  the  work  must  doubtless  be 
conceded.  We  may  even  allow  that  it  is  built  up  out  of  shorter 
epics.  But  I  cannot  admit  that  such  a  poem  as  the  Odyssey 
can  be  successfully  constructed  out  of  shorter  ones  by  stringing 
the  latter  together,  even  if  we  do  grant  that  the  additions  made 
by  the  editor  amount  to  a  sixth  part  of  the  whole'\  It  is  ques- 
tionable therefore  whether  we  are  justified  in  regarding  the  last 
stratum  as  the  work  of  an  'editor' — whether  we  ought  not  rather 
to  regard  this  person  as  the  'author'  of  our  poem.  He  must 
have  used  earlier  pieces,  and  he  may  have  incorporated  them 
in  large  mass  in  his  work.  But  we  have  no  guarantee  that  he 
did  not  greatly  expand  his  materials  as  well  as  provide  con- 
necting links  between  them. 

In  the  Iliad  we  are  confronted  to  a  certain  extent  with  the 
same  problems.  But  the  process  of  unification  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  carried  out  so  thoroughly  and  the  proportion  of 
early  matter  incorporated  is  probably  much  greater.  The  point 
however  which  I  would  especially  emphasise  in  both  cases  alike 

^  Cf.  Reichel,  op.  cit.  p.  59:  "Das  Epos  schildert,  wie  in  alien  Dingen,  auch  hier 
die  altere  Prachtzeit,"  and  pp.  63,  102  f.,  where  the  first  appearance  of  the  round 
shield  (of  which  the  knowledge  is  granted,  p.  55  ff.)  is  referred  to  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century,  and  that  of  breast-plates  to  about  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century. 

2  Prof.  V.  Wilamowitz-Mollendorff  holds  that  the  editor  was  a  person  of  inferior 
ability  and  that  the  poem  as  a  whole  is  not  a  success ;  but  this  view  is  scarcely 
in  accordance  with  the  generally  received  opinion. 


220  THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP.  X 

is  that  the  unification  process  cannot  be  used  as  an  argument 
for  lateness  of  date.  If  we  bear  in  mind  the  undoubtedly  archaic 
character  of  both  poems,  the  paucity  of  inconsistencies  points  to 
an  entirely  opposite  conclusion.  The  greater  the  amount  of 
matter  which  we  attribute  to  the  last  strata,  the  shorter  must 
be  the  period  during  which  the  poems  grew  until  they  reached 
their  final  form. 

Lastly  we  have  seen  that  though  the  linguistic  evidence 
agrees  very  well  with  the  tradition  that  'Homer'  belonged  to 
Smyrna  (or  Chios),  there  are  very  serious  objections  to  the 
view  that  the  poems  were  originally  composed  in  the  Ionic 
dialects  They  may  have  been  subsequently  lonicised  in  their 
original  home,  but  even  that  is  scarcely  certain.  The  form  in 
which  they  have  come  down  to  us  belongs  properly  to  the 
western  Ionic  of  the  islands,  which  in  early  times  was  used  as 
a  literary  language  in  Athens. 

^  It  is  worth  noting  that  these  objections  apply  even  to  what  are  commonly 
regarded  as  among  the  latest  parts  of  the  poems.  Thus  in  Od.  xxiv  305,  where 
Odysseus  describes  himself  as  uios  ' A<pfi5avTos  UoXvTTTifj.oi'ldao  dvaKTos,  the  point  is 
entirely  spoilt  by  the  Ionic  form.  That  the  true  form  should  be  Aeolic  (-Troyu/xoj/-)  is 
rendered  more  than  probable  by  such  names  as  'AXid^pffTjs,  HoXvOepffetdr) — of  which  at 
least  the  second  likewise  belongs  to  the  '  later '  portions  of  the  poem. 


CHAPTER  XL 

EARLY  GREEK  POETRY  AND  MINSTRELSY. 

In  Chapter  V  we  saw  that  four  well-marked  stages  may  be 
distinguished  in  the  history  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry.  The 
first  is  that  of  strictly  contemporary  court  poetry,  dealing  with 
the  praises  or  the  adventures  of  living  men.  The  second  is  that 
of  epic  or  narrative  court  poetry,  which  celebrates  the  deeds  of 
heroes  of  the  past,  though  not  of  a  very  remote  past.  The  third 
is  the  popular  stage,  during  which  the  same  stories  were  handled 
by  village  minstrels.  The  last  stage  is  that  in  which  the  old 
subjects  again  found  favour  with  the  nobility  in  Germany  and 
were  treated  in  a  new  form  which  reflected  the  conditions  of  the 
age  of  chivalry.  We  must  now  see  whether  any  such  stages 
can  be  traced  in  the  history  of  Greek  heroic  poetry. 

For  the  first  stage  plenty  of  evidence  is  supplied  by  the 
Homeric  poems.  In  the  Odyssey  we  meet  with  several  persons 
who  seem  to  be  professional  court  minstrels.  Such  are  Demo- 
docos  at  the  court  of  Alcinoos  and  Phemios  at  that  of  Odysseus, 
while  others  are  mentioned  at  the  courts  of  Agamemnon  and 
Menelaos.  Both  Demodocos  and  Phemios  are  represented  as 
singing  of  recent  events,  namely  the  adventures  of  the  Achaeans 
on  their  return  from  Troy,  though  the  former  also  produces  one 
song  upon  a  mythical  subject.  The  song  or  recitation  is  in- 
variably accompanied  upon  a  lyre,  probably  much  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Teutonic  minstrel  used  his  harp^ 

As  among  the  Teutonic  peoples,  we  hear  also  occasionally 

1  In  Od.  IV  lyff.  two  acrobats  give  a  performance  while  Menelaos'  minstrel  is 
singing,  and  in  viii  2616".  Demodocos'  song  on  the  love  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite  is  both 
accompanied  and  followed  by  dancing.  More  usually  however  the  minstrel's  song 
and  music  is  the  only  form  of  entertainment. 


222  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

of  royal  minstrels.  Paris  appears  to  be  a  skilful  musician 
(II.  Ill  54),  while  Achilles  is  amusing  himself  by  singing  the 
'  glories  of  heroes '  {Kkea  dvhpwv)  when  he  is  visited  by  Aias 
and  Odysseus  {ib.  IX  189).  But  the  status  of  even  the  pro- 
fessional minstrel  was,  sometimes  at  least,  one  of  considerable 
importance.  Agamemnon,  on  his  departure  to  Troy,  is  said 
to  have  entrusted  his  queen  to  the  care  of  a  certain  minstrel 
(Od.  Ill  267  f.) — a  case  which  may  be  compared  with  several 
Teutonic  stories  relating  both  to  the  Heroic  Age  and  the 
Viking  Age.  The  Phaeacian  minstrel  Demodocos  is  blind,  like 
the  Frisian  Bernlef;  but,  unlike  the  latter,  he  seems  to  have  a 
recognised  position  at  Alcinoos'  court.  He  is  evidently  regarded 
as  a  person  of  distinction  ;  in  VIII  483  we  find  him  described 
as  ^po)?,  a  term  frequently  applied  to  princes.  For  minstrels 
of  Bernlef's  type  we  have  no  clear  evidence  in  the  Homeric 
poems.  In  Od.  xvii  382  ff.  we  hear  of  invitations  given  to 
minstrels  ;  but  the  reference  may  be  to  persons  of  Widsith's 
class.  The  same  seems  to  be  true  of  the  Thracian  minstrel 
Thamyris  mentioned  in  II.  ll  595  ff.  ;  for  it  is  stated  that  he  was 
coming  from  Eurytos  of  Oichalia  when  disaster  befell  him. 

On  the  whole  then  the  court  minstrelsy  of  the  Homeric 
poems  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Teutonic 
Heroic  Age.  We  cannot,  it  is  true,  obtain  any  corroborative 
evidence  for  its  existence  from  contemporary  historical  docu- 
ments. But  the  negative  evidence  is  almost  as  decisive.  Even 
in  the  earliest  times  of  which  we  have  record  no  trace  of  such 
an  institution  is  to  be  found  in  Greece.  We  hear  of  rhapsodists 
at  Sicyon  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century;  but 
they  are  clearly  persons  of  Bernlef's  type,  reciting  '  Homeric ' 
poems,  i.e.  stories  of  ancient  times.  Moreover  they  were  viewed 
with  disfavour  by  the  ruler.  Another  type  of  professional  poet 
may  be  seen  in  such  persons  as  Alcman.  These  were  what 
may  be  called  '  state-poets ' ;  sometimes  they  were  trainers  of 
the  state  choruses.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  were 
court  poets.  We  hear  also  of  poets,  sometimes  men  of  noble 
birth,  like  Eumelos,  who  composed  hymns  for  festal  occasions. 
But  these  too  worked  for  the  glorification  of  the  state,  or  indeed 
for  that  of  any  state  which  employed  them,  and  their  position 


I 


Xl]  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  223 

was  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  court  minstrel  who 
composes  for  his  lord's  gratification.  Minstrelsy  of  the  Homeric 
type  is  conceivable  only  in  an  age  of  real  kingship,  and  it  is 
incredible  that  such  a  type  could  have  been  invented  after  that 
institution  had  ceased  to  exist.  Indeed  the  nearest  Greek 
analogy  to  it  is  probably  to  be  found  in  such  poets  as  Anacreon 
who  flourished  at  the  courts  of  the  later  tyrants.  Their  poems 
however  dealt  with  an  entirely  different  class  of  subjects. 

It  is  true  that  minstrels  are  mentioned  beside  kings  in  a 
passage  in  Hesiod's  Theogony  (v.  94  ff.),  both  being  said  to  derive 
their  endowment  from  divine  sources^  But  there  is  nothing  to 
show  that  these  were  court  minstrels.  At  all  events  it  is  clear 
enough  from  another  passage  in  the  same  poem  (v.  22  ff.),  as 
well  as  from  the  Works  and  Days,  that  Hesiod  himself  was  not 
a  man  of  this  type.  Moreover,  the  subjects  with  which  the 
minstrels  are  said  to  deal  are  the  '  famous  deeds  (glories) 
of  men  of  old  '  (/cXeea  wpoTepwv  di'Bpooirojv).  The  reference  then 
is  to  heroic  poetry,  but  in  a  stage  not  earlier  than  Stage  il  of 
our  scheme.  The  passage  however  is  undoubtedly  interesting  as 
showing  a  stage  intermediate  between  Homeric  minstrels  and  the 
later  rhapsodists.  From  the  word  Kidapcarai  we  may  perhaps 
infer  that  the  musical  accompaniment,  which  the  latter  seem  to 
have  discarded,  was  still  in  use. 

Probably  no  one  will  suggest  that  the  Homeric  poems  them- 
selves are  products  of  the  type  of  minstrelsy  (Stage  l)  which  we 
have  been  considering.  Now  therefore  we  must  try  to  ascertain 
v/hich  of  the  other  three  stages  they  correspond  to.  Curiously 
enough  no  such  question  as  this  appears  to  have  been  discussed 
in  any  of  the  numerous  Homeric  researches  which  the  last  half 
century  has  produced.  Nearly  all  writers  have  completely 
ignored  the  existence  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poems.  On 
the  other  hand  medieval  German  poems,  such  as  the  Nibel- 
ungenlied,   have   been    freely    used   in   illustration  of  Homeric 

1  iK  yap  Movffdwv  /cat  eKr]^6\ov  ' AwoWwvos 

avSpfS  doi8ol  ^affiv  iwl  x^^""-  'f'*'   KiOapiaTal- 
iK  Si  At6s  ^aa-iXrjes-   6  5'  oX^tos  6vTiva  MoC<rat 
<f>l\<jjvTai-    yXvKcpri  ol  diro  (TT6/j.aTos  piei  avbi). 


224  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

problems,  and  there  can  be  no  question  that  in  many  respects 
the  supposed  analogy  has  had  far-reaching  influence  on  their 
interpretation.  In  the  application  of  these  illustrations  as  a  rule 
no  account  whatever  has  been  taken  of  what  we  may  call  the 
stratification  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry. 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly  the  history  of  the  Nibelungenlied, 
We  have  seen  that  the  origin  of  the  story  is  to  be  sought  in 
poems  composed  probably  within  memory  of  certain  events 
with  which  it  deals,  and  that  the  subject  appears  to  have  been 
worked  up  into  a  somewhat  elaborate  form  within  the  next  two 
centuries.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  these  early'  poems 
were  products  of  court-minstrelsy  and  that  their  form  was  that 
of  the  old  Teutonic  alliterative  verse.  Later  however  there 
came  a  time  when  all  heroic  poetry  passed  out  of  fashion  among 
the  higher  classes,  and  when  this  story,  like  the  rest,  must  have 
been  preserved  only  by  village  minstrels.  Then,  after  a  lapse 
of  several  centuries,  it  appears  again  in  an  entirely  different 
metrical  form,  and  permeated  through  and  through  with  the 
ideas  and  customs  of  the  age  of  chivalry.  Little  beyond  the 
bare  outlines  of  the  story  can  have  been  inherited  from  the 
original  poems,  and  even  these  appear  to  have  undergone  con- 
siderable modification. 

Now  if  the  history  of  Homeric  poetry  is  really  parallel  to 
this,  we  shall  have  to  suppose  that  the  stories  were  first  treated 
in  court  poetry  about  the  close  of  the  pre-migration  period  ;  that 
after  flourishing  for  a  while  they  fell  out  of  favour  in  royal  circles 
and  were  preserved  only  by  village  minstrels,  at  whose  hands 
they  underwent  a  long  process  of  disintegration  ;  and  that 
finally  they  formed  the  basis  of  new  aristocratic  poems  some 
six  or  seven  centuries  after  they  first  saw  the  light.  In  order  to 
present  a  complete  parallel  the  later  poems  must  use  a  new 
metrical  form,  of  foreign  derivation,  which  will  preclude  the 
possibility  of  their  containing  a  single  verse  of  the  original  poems. 
The  customs  and  ideas  too  which  they  reflect  must  be  wholly, 
or  almost  wholly,  those  of  their  own  period,  and  not  those  of  the 
Heroic  Age. 

But  it  is  manifest  that  this  description  will  not  fit  the 
Homeric  poems  in  any  way.     According  to   the  opinion  held 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  225 

by  the  majority  of  scholars  the  customs  and  ideas  reflected  by 
the  Homeric  poems  are  inconsistent — sometimes  they  are  those 
of  the  Heroic  Age,  sometimes  those  of  the  poets'  own  age. 
Indeed  many  scholars  hold  that  the  former  type  predominates. 
Personally  I  am  not  ready  to  admit  that  the  difference  between 
the  two  ages  was  anything  like  so  great  as  is  commonly  assumed. 
But  in  any  case  it  must  be  granted  that  in  some  respects,  e.g.  in 
regard  to  political  geography  and  the  use  of  the  metals,  the 
conditions  of  the  Heroic  Age  are  truly  reflected  almost  every- 
where. Further  it  is  commonly  held  that  considerable  portions 
of  the  poems  go  back,  more  or  less  in  their  present  form,  not 
perhaps  to  the  Heroic  Age  itself,  but  at  all  events  a  long 
distance  in  that  direction.  We  must  conclude  therefore  that, 
unless  modern  criticism  has  gone  hopelessly  astray,  the  Nibel- 
ungenlied  presents  no  true  analogy  to  the  history  of  the 
Homeric  poems. 

Now  let  us  take  the  Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poems.  It  is 
obvious  enough  that  here  there  is  at  all  events  a  superficial 
resemblance  between  the  two  cases,  although  the  Greek  poems 
are  on  a  much  larger  scale.  Both  sets  of  poems  are  the  work 
of  colonists  who  had  crossed  the  sea,  and  both  equally  suppress 
all  reference  to  the  existence  of  such  settlements.  It  is  true 
that  the  scene  of  the  Iliad  is  laid  in  a  district  not  far  from 
that  in  which  it  appears  to  have  been  composed.  But  this 
district  is  represented  as  being  in  possession  of  an  alien  people. 
The  compatriots  of  the  poets — who  clearly  speak  from  the 
Achaean  side — are  uniformly  represented  as  dwelling  on  the 
west  of  the  Aegean.  But  these  after  all  are  merely  accidental 
coincidences.  Far  more  important  for  us  is  the  fact,  which  we 
have  already  noted,  that  both  sets  of  poems  carry  the  history  of 
heroic  poetry  back  to  court  minstrels  who  are  represented  as 
living  in  the  Heroic  Age  itself.  The  question  which  we  have  to 
face  is  whether  or  not  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  likewise  resemble 
the  Anglo-Saxon  poems  in  being  themselves  products  of  court- 
minstrelsy  in  direct  continuation  of  that  which  they  depict  as 
existing  in  the  Heroic  Age. 

If  this  question  is  incapable  of  being  answered  we  must,  I 
think,  conclude  that  the  historical  study  of  early  Greek  poetry 


226  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

is  futile.  No  impartial  observer  can  fail  to  have  been  struck  by 
the  immense  strides  made  within  the  last  generation  by  Greek 
archaeology,  as  compared  with  the  very  small  amount  of  pro- 
gress made  from  the  literary  side — at  least  if  progress  is  to  be 
judged  by  the  attainment  of  any  general  consensus  of  opinion. 
Experienced  archaeologists  can  now  very  soon  determine 
whether  the  remains  which  they  find  are  those  of  a  village  or  a 
palace,  and  whether  they  belong  to  (let  us  say)  the  classical  or 
the  geometrical  or  the  Mycenean  period.  Again,  in  the  case 
of  sites  long  occupied  they  can  easily  detect  the  existence  of 
different  strata — especially  if  a  palace  has  been  built  on  the  site 
of  an  earlier  village,  or  if  a  village  settlement  has  intervened 
between  two  '  palace-periods.'  Is  it  really  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish such  strata  in  the  history  of  poetry,  or  is  the  absence 
of  progress  which  we  have  noted  to  be  attributed  to  other 
causes — perhaps  that  the  criticism  has  been  of  too  subjective  a 
character  ? 

Now  it  is  almost  universally  agreed  that  the  Homeric  poems 
are  considerably  older  than  any  other  form  of  Greek  literature 
which  has  come  down  to  us.  Some  scholars  indeed  hold  that 
the  latest  portions  of  the  Odyssey  belong  to  the  seventh  century; 
but  we  have  seen  that  the  evidence  for  this  view  is  by  no  means 
satisfactory.  Certainly  by  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
and  probably  somewhat  earlier,  we  meet  with  totally  different 
types  of  poetry.  In  the  first  place  we  find  a  number  of  new 
metrical  forms,  elegiac,  iambic  and  trochaic,  not  to  speak  of  the 
numerous  varieties  of  lyric  metre.  In  matter  and  in  spirit  too 
the  difference  is  just  as  marked  as  it  is  in  form.  The  new  poets 
are  primarily  concerned  with  the  affairs  of  their  own  day. 
Callinos  and  Tyrtaios  are  inspired  by  national  patriotism. 
T^heir  fragments  may  be  compared  with  the  poem  on  the  battle 
of  Brunanburh,  though  even  this  is  nearer  to  the  heroic  spirit. 
Archilochos  again  is  almost  entirely  taken  up  with  his  own 
experiences  and  passions.  A  good  analogy  for  his  case  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Icelandic  adventurer  Egill  Skallagrimsson.  In  all 
respects  then  the  poetry  of  this  age  is  as  far  removed  as  possible 
from  the  heroic  type  of  poetry. 

Yet  traces  of  an  intermediate  or  transitional  stage  are  not 


XI]  EARLY  GREEK   POETRY  AND   MINSTRELSY  22/ 

altogether  wanting.  From  the  fragments  of  the  Hesiodic  Cata- 
logue and  other  works  which  are  attributed  to  the  close  of  the 
eighth  and  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  centuries  it  is  clear  that 
— apart  from  hymns — the  old  hexameter  metre  was  retained  for 
a  time  in  a  class  of  poetry  which  appears  to  have  been  largely 
genealogical  in  character.  In  matter  also,  as  well  as  in  form, 
this  class  had  certain  elements  in  common  with  Homeric  poetry, 
since  both  were  concerned  with  the  far  past.  But  in  spirit  its 
affinities  were  rather  with  the  poetry  of  the  following  age ;  for 
its  object  seems  clearly  to  have  been  the  glorification  of  the 
state. 

These  observations  lead  us  to  conclude  that  a  sequence  can 
be  traced  in  the  history  of  poetry,  as  in  that  of  art.  It  is  at 
least  a  natural  hypothesis  that  the  great  development  of  original 
poetry  in  the  age  of  Callinos  and  Archilochos  was  connected  in 
some  way  with  those  political  and  social  movements  which  so 
greatly  affected  the  Greek  world  during  the  eighth  and  seventh 
centuries — changing  almost  every  kingdom  into  a  republic. 
Moreover  the  existence  of  the  transitional  (genealogical)  type 
of  poetry  which  we  have  noted  is  altogether  favourable  to  this 
idea ;  for  the  form  of  government  which  took  the  place  of 
kingship  was  at  first  that  of  a  strictly  limited  aristocracy.  But 
have  we  any  ground  for  believing  that  heroic  poetry  was  the 
poetry  of  the  age  of  kingship  ?  How  far  is  such  an  equation  in 
accord  with  the  chronological  data  at  our  disposal  ?  In  Greece 
itself  kingship  generally  seems  to  have  come  to  an  end  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  century.  In  Aeolis  however,  with  which 
we  are  primarily  concerned,  the  change  was  in  all  probability 
somewhat  later ;  for  the  Phrygian  king  Midas  (Mita  of  Muski), 
who  perished  in  the  Cimmerian  invasion  about  the  beginning  of 
the  seventh  century,  is  said  to  have  married  a  daughter  of 
Agamemnon,  king  of  Cyme.  But  few  will  deny  that  the  great 
bulk  of  Homeric  poetry  was  in  existence  by  this  time.  The 
equation  therefore  seems  to  be  fully  justified.  Survivals  and 
imitations  may  occur  in  later  times,  as  in  the  case  of  art ;  but, 
broadly  speaking,  it  appears  that  heroic  poetry  is  properly  the 
poetry  of  the  age  of  kingship. 

We  must  not  assume  forthwith  however  that  it  was  the  only 


1 


228  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

type  of  poetry  which  existed  during  this  age.  Certain  passages 
in  Hesiod's  poems  (Theog.  80  ff.,  W.  and  D,  38  f.)  render  it 
clear  that  kingship  in  some  form  or  other  still  existed  when 
they  were  composed ;  yet  they  differ  very  greatly  from  the 
Homeric  type.  Our  next  object  therefore  must  be  to  try  to 
ascertain  the  true  provenance  of  Homeric  poetry.  Was  it  court 
poetry  or  popular  poetry,  or  are  we  to  trace  its  origin  to  con- 
ditions which  cannot  well  be  brought  under  either  of  these 
categories  ? 

It  cannot  seriously  be  contended,  I  think,  that  the  Homeric 
poems  are  of  popular  origin.  In  the  first  place  their  length  is 
scarcely  compatible  with  such  a  hypothesis^  Their  metrical 
form  also  is  clearly  the  product  of  a  long  artistic  development ; 
it  is  inconceivable  that  popular  poetry  could  be  capable  of 
creating  anything  so  elaborate.  Again  they  are  by  no  means 
in  the  nature  of  biographical  sketches  (cf.  p.  95) ;  in  spite  of 
their  great  length  the  action  in  both  cases  extends  over  quite 
a  brief  period  of  time.  Further,  there  is  little  or  no  definite 
evidence — certainly  none  which  can  be  called  conclusive — for 
that  confusion  of  different  stories  which  characterises  popular 
poetry.  The  heroes  who  figure  in  the  Homeric  poems  are 
scarcely  the  most  famous  representatives  of  their  states.  Most 
of  them  are  little  known  elsewhere.  Popular  poetry  could 
hardly  have  failed  to  introduce  into  the  action  such  persons  as 
Heracles,  Theseus,  Peirithoos,  Minos,  lason  or  Adrastos.  Then 
again  we  may  note  the  presence  of  nearly  all  those  features 
which  distinguish  the  heroic  poetry  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  (cf. 
p.  82  f.).  The  characters  brought  before  us  in  the  Iliad  are 
almost  invariably  either  princes  or  persons  attached  to  the 
retinues  of  princes,  and  themselves  apparently  of  what  we  may 
call  knightly  rank.  The  chief  exception  (Thersites)  is  described 
in  a  way  which  only  proves  the  rule.  It  is  true  that  this  prin- 
ciple is  not  so  strictly  observed  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Odyssey. 

^  Cf.  Breal,  Pour  mieux  connaitre  Homer,  p.  24  :  "  Attribuer  a  la  poesie  populaire 
une  composition  en  vingt-quatre  chants,  quelle  folic  ! "  But  one  must  bear  in  mind 
the  length  sometimes  attained  by  Bosnian  poems  (cf.  p.  loi).  I  may  remark  here 
that  this  work — like  many  others  dealing  with  the  Homeric  poems — frequently  uses 
arguments  which  would  not  have  been  put  forward  if  attention  had  been  paid  to  the 
heroic  poetry  of  other  European  peoples. 


Xl]  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  229 

Several  persons  of  humble  rank  are  introduced  here,  though  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  most  prominent  of  them  (Eumaios,  the 
swine-herd)  is  said  to  be  of  princely  birth.  In  other  respects 
however  the  Odyssey  conforms  to  the  rules  of  Teutonic  court 
poetry  just  as  much  as  the  Iliad.  Thus  it  is  fond  of  describing 
in  detail  the  movements  of  kings  and  queens  in  their  palaces 
and  the  conventions  observed  in  the  reception  of  strangers. 
Again,  persons  of  princely  rank  are  seldom  spoken  of  with 
disrespect  in  either  poem.  Dialogues  must  of  course  be  ex- 
cepted, and  also  references  (especially  in  the  Nekyia)  to  persons 
of  the  far  past — precisely  as  in  Teutonic  poetry.  But  in 
general  there  is  a  noteworthy  absence  of  any  display  of  feeling 
against  the  opponents  of  the  poet's  heroes — as  much  in  the  case 
of  Penelope's  suitors  as  in  that  of  the  Trojans.  Perhaps  the  most 
striking  instance  is  the  semi-apologetic  account  of  Clytaimnestra's 
conduct  given  by  Nestor  (Od.  Ill  263 — 272),  a  passage  which 
may  be  compared  with  the  story  of  Ofifa's  wife  in  Beowulf 
We  may  note  also  the  surprisingly  lenient  treatment  of  Paris  in 
the  Iliad.  Indeed  the  characters  represented  in  the  most  un- 
favourable light  are  gods — a  phenomenon  for  which  we  have 
analogies  in  Old  Norse  poetry.  Lastly,  we  must  observe  the 
strict  avoidance  of  coarseness  and  of  things  not  mentioned  in 
polite  society. 

Before  we  proceed  further  it  will  be  convenient  to  turn  for  a 
moment  to  Hesiod's  poems.  For  these  also  early  Teutonic 
literature  presents  a  number  of  fairly  close  parallels.  In  par- 
ticular the  proverbial  part  of  the  Works  and  Days  has  many 
analogies  in  gnomic  poetry,  both  English  and  Scandinavian.  As 
an  example  we  may  cite  the  first  and  last  portions  of  Havamal. 
Again  the  precepts  on  husbandry  and  the  calendar  resemble 
several  Anglo-Saxon  works  both  in  prose  and  verse.  For  the 
Theogony  the  closest  Teutonic  parallel — and  it  is  very  close — 
is  the  prose  Gylfaginning ;  but  earlier  poetical  works,  such  as 
Voluspa  and  HyndlulioS,  run  on  somewhat  similar  lines.  There 
is  evidence  too  that  subjects  of  the  same  kind  were  once  popular 
in   England ^     Lastly,  the  verses  (22  ff.)  which  relate  how  the 

^  Cf.  especially  a  letter  from  Daniel,  bishop  of  Winchester,  to  St  Boniface,  written 
about  the  year  720  (Jaffe,  Bibliotheca  Rerum  Germanicarum,  III  71  ff.). 


230  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

poet  received  his  inspiration  may  be  compared  with  the  story  of 
Caedmon. 

Now  if  we  compare  the  characteristics  of  Hesiodic  and 
Homeric  poetry  we  cannot  fail  to  notice  that  they  present  a 
very  striking  contrast  in  several  respects,  even  apart  from  the 
absence  of  a  common  theme.  In  the  first  place  Hesiod  takes 
no  pains  to  conceal  his  personality.  Again,  his  poems  contain 
little  in  the  way  of  detailed  description,  except  where  the 
occupations  of  a  farmer's  life  are  discussed.  Thirdly,  they  show 
no  tendency  to  avoid  indelicate  subjects.  Lastly,  they  betray 
no  acquaintance  with  court  life.  Kings  are  occasionally  men- 
tioned, though  not  by  name,  but  all  the  references  are  to  their 
public  appearances,  as  judges  or  mediators.  We  may  notice  too 
that  though  in  the  Theogony  (v.  80  fif.)  they  are  spoken  of  with 
respect,  in  the  Works  and  Days  (v.  38  f.)  the  title  is  coupled 
with  an  opprobrious  epithet  {8(opo<f)dyov<;).  No  one  can  fail  to 
observe  that  in  nearly  all  these  respects^  Hesiod  shows  the 
characteristics  which  commonly  distinguish  popular  poetry. 

But  we  have  to  remember  that  in  spite  of  all  these  differences 
Hesiod  uses  the  same  metrical  form  and  to  a  large  extent  the 
same  style  of  language  as  the  Homeric  poems.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  priority  lies  with  the  latter ;  indeed  Hesiod 
frequently  betrays  acquaintance  with  Homeric  poetry.  But  it 
must  not  be  assumed  that  his  themes  were  new  ;  they  are  far 
more  primitive  than  anything  of  the  heroic  type.  If  Hesiod  was 
the  founder  of  a  new  era  in  poetry  we  must  conclude  that  his 
innovation  consisted  in  the  application  of  the  forms  of  heroic 
poetry  to  purposes  for  which  they  had  not  previously  been  used. 
The  heroic  hexameter  is  the  only  form  of  metre  which  can  be 
traced  back  beyond  the  seventh  century,  and  we  can  hardly 
doubt  that  it  is  the  oldest  form  of  cultivated  Greek  poetry.  But 
less  elaborate  forms  of  verse — perhaps  rude  precursors  of  the 
iambic  and  lyric  metres — must  also  have  been  in  popular  use  for 
ages  in  ballads,  songs  and  hymns.  We  may  infer  then  that 
what  Hesiod  did  was  to  turn  to  popular  use  the  form  of  poetry 
which  represented  the  highest  standard  of  art  in  his  day. 

^  The  suppression  of  the  poet's  personality  is  not  a  mark  of  heroic  poetry  as  such, 
but  of  epic  or  narrative  heroic  poetry. 


I 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  23 1 

But  what  were  the  conditions  which  produced  this  elaborate 
and  highly  artificial  type  of  poetry  ?  The  characteristics  of 
Homeric  poetry  enumerated  above  are  conclusive  evidence  that 
it  was  not  of  popular  origin.  Some  of  them  are  extremely 
difficult  to  account  for  unless  its  true  home  was  in  the  king's 
courts.  It  may  be  objected  that  Hesiod  was  familiar  with 
Homeric  poetry,  though  he  knew  nothing  of  court  life.  But 
Hesiod  probably  belonged  to  the  last  days  of  the  kingly  period, 
when  that  institution  was  losing  its  power  and  popularity.  It 
is  only  in  accordance  with  what  we  might  expect  that  in  such 
an  age  court  poets — in  view  of  Theog.  94  f.  we  should  perhaps 
say  minstrels — would  frequently  try  to  get  a  hearing  from  a 
wider  circle.  Hesiod's  own  activity  falls  in  with  this  explanation 
perfectly  well.  His  popularity  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  pre- 
served the  artistic  form  of  court  poetry,  while  at  the  same  time 
he  discarded  its  conventions  and  turned  to  subjects  which  were 
more  in  accordance  with  the  tastes  and  interests  of  his  own  class. 

Apart  from  the  courts  it  is  difficult  to  see  where  conditions 
favourable  to  the  growth  of  Homeric  poetry  could  have  existed. 
Aeolis  in  the  eighth  century  must  have  differed  very  greatly 
from  the  city  states  of  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries.  Hesiod 
himself  belonged  to  a  family  which  was  possessed  of  some 
property.  His  father  was  a  merchant;  but  we  can  hardly 
suppose  that  this  class  was  either  numerous  or  wealthy,  in  a 
land  which  consisted  essentially  of  agricultural  communities.  We 
shall  hardly  go  astray,  I  think,  in  believing  that  the  conditions 
here  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  bore  far  more  resem- 
blance to  those  which  prevailed  in  Teutonic  kingdoms  some 
twelve  or  thirteen  centuries  later  than  to  those  of  cities  like 
Miletos  or  Athens  at  their  prime.  There  as  here  the  wealth 
was  probably  to  a  large  extent  in  the  possession  of  the  kings. 
Indeed  from  the  story  of  Midas'  relations  with  Agamemnon  of 
Cyme  (cf.  p.  227)  we  may  perhaps  infer  that  the  kings  retained  a 
certain  amount  of  influence  even  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth 
century.  On  the  other  hand  the  name  of  this  king  may  certainly 
be  taken  as  evidence  that  the  courts  were  interested  in  heroic 
poetry  ^ 

^  Unfortunately  there  seems  to  be  hardly  any  material  which  might  enable  us  to 


232  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

We  have  now  seen  that  Homeric  poetry  goes  back  to  the 
age  of  kingship  and  that  it  is  not  of  popular  origin  (Stage  III), 
but  in  all  probability  a  product  of  court  life.  Our  next  object 
must  be  to  consider  whether  this  poetry  was  a  direct  continua- 
tion of  the  court-minstrelsy  of  the  Heroic  Age  (Stage  l), 
represented  by  Demodocos  and  Phemios — in  which  case  of 
course  it  will  correspond  to  Stage  II  of  our  scheme — or  whether 
it  is  rather  a  secondary  outgrowth  from  popular  poetry  (Stage 
IV).  The  problem,  it  will  be  seen,  is  essentially  one  of  stratifi- 
cation. If  we  may,  in  archaeological  language,  speak  of  the 
Homeric  poems  as  a  '  palace-structure ' — it  ought  surely  to  be 
possible  to  determine  whether  traces  of  a  'village  settlement' 
lie  immediately  beneath  it. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  above  (p.  224  f)  that  the  Nibelungen- 
lied  cannot  furnish  any  true  analogy  to  the  history  of  Homeric 
poetry.  The  other  type  of  Stage  IV  which  we  have  considered 
(p.  99  f )  is  that  of  the  Edda  poems.  But  I  do  not  think  that 
anyone  will  seriously  expect  to  find  a  strict  parallel  here.  In 
that  case  we  should  have  to  suppose  that  heroic  poetry  was 
originally  unknown  to  the  Aeolians,  whether  in  Asia  or  Thessaly. 
But  the  Thessalian  element — including  as  it  does  such  striking 
conceptions  as  the  location  of  the  gods  on  Mount  Olympos — is 
too  deeply  engrained  in  this  class  of  poetry  to  render  such  a 
hypothesis  probable.  We  shall  see  shortly  that  a  better  analogy 
for  the  history  of  the  Edda  poems  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in 
quite  a  different  quarter. 

The  theory  which  obtains  most  currency  at  the  present  time 
is  that  Homeric  poetry  grew  up  in  the  Greek  settlements  on  the 
Asiatic  coast  on  the  basis  of  ballads  derived  from  Thessaly — 
perhaps  also  from  other  parts  of  Greece.  This  theory  does  not 
exactly  answer  to  our  definition  of  Stage  IV ;  but  we  may  treat 
it  under  the  same  heading,  as  it  likewise  involves  the  develop- 
ment of  heroic  poetry  out  of  popular  poetry.  According  to  any 
explanation  of  this  kind  we  must  of  course  assume  that  the 
court-minstrelsy  depicted  in  the  poems  is  a  reflection  of  court 

estimate  the  popularity  of  heroic  names  in  Greece  in  early  times  (cf.  pp.  42  ff.,  64  ff.). 
Note  however  may  be  taken  of  the  existence  of  a  prince  named  Hector  in  Chios, 
perhaps  shortly  after  the  time  of  Agamemnon  of  Cjmie. 


I 


Xl]  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  233 

life  in  the  Asiatic  settlements.  This  is  conceivable  enough  in 
itself,  provided  that  the  requisite  conditions  are  carried  back  at 
least  to  the  ninth  century.  But  is  the  theory  probable  ?  No 
one  will  suggest,  I  suppose,  that  the  wealth  or  culture  of  the 
Aeolic  settlements  during  the  tenth  and  ninth  centuries  was 
superior  to  that  of  the  Greek  kingdoms  in  general  towards  the 
close  of  the  Achaean  period.  Briefly  stated  then  the  current 
theory  comes  to  this  :  the  wealthier  and  more  cultured  period 
produced  nothing  but  popular  ballads,  while  the  poorer  and 
ruder  period  produced  a  most  elaborate  and  magnificent  court 
poetry. 

We  have  seen  that  Homeric  poetry  possesses  certain  charac- 
teristics which  are  incompatible  with  the  idea  that  it  is  itself  of 
popular  origin.  But  a  closer  inspection  will  show  that  some  of 
these  characteristics  are  almost  as  difficult  to  account  for  on  the 
hypothesis  that  it  was  a  recent  outgrowth  from  popular  poetry. 
In  particular  this  is  true  of  their  metrical  form,  if  we  are  justified 
in  believing  that  the  Homeric  type  of  verse  presupposes  a  long 
artistic  development.  Again,  the  confusion  of  different  stories 
which  characterises  popular  poetry  (Stage  III)  will  not  be 
removed  in  its  more  cultivated  successor  (Stage  IV) ;  Dietrich 
von  Bern  (Theodric)  remains  by  the  side  of  Etzel  (Attila)  in  the 
Nibelungenlied.  The  same  remark  too  applies  to  those  changes 
of  character  which  popular  poetry  is  apt  to  produce.  In  the 
Nibelungenlied  Hagen  remains  as  cruel  and  Kriemhild  as 
passionately  vindictive  as  popular  fancy  had  painted  them.  The 
poets  of  a  later  age  will  not  trouble  themselves  to  save  the 
characters  of  persons  who  lived  long  ago.  We  shall  see  shortly 
that  this  is  true  of  Greek  poetry  just  as  much  as  of  German. 
But  the  Homeric  poems — except  perhaps  in  the  Nekyia — will 
not  supply  us  with  examples. 

Finally,  we  must  bear  in  mind  those  reminiscences  of 
Mycenean — or  rather  '  sub-Mycenean  ' — splendour  which  the 
poems  contain  and  their  almost  invariable  use  of  bronze  as  the 
material  for  weapons — not  to  mention  the  fact  that  the  political 
and  national  boundaries  which  they  record  are  totally  different 
from  those  which  existed  in  the  ninth  century.  Will  anyone 
seriously    maintain    that    such    traditions    could    be    preserved 


234  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND    MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

through  the  medium  of  popular  ballads  alone  ?     I  confess  that 
such  a  hypothesis  is  altogether  incredible  to  me. 

Now  let  us  take  the  alternative  explanation,  suggested  by 
the  Anglo-Saxon  poems.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  Aeolic 
settlements  are  older  than  the  Ionic  in  Asia ;  but  since  even  the 
former  are  ignored  in  the  poems  it  is  hardly  probable  that  they 
came  into  existence  until  towards  the  close  of  the  Achaean 
period.  When  the  storms  broke  upon  Greece  crowds  of  refugees, 
not  only  from  Thessaly  but  also  from  many  other  parts  of  the 
country,  fled  to  the  new  Aeolic  settlements  across  the  Aegean, 
Among  them,  according  to  the  suggested  analogy,  were  many 
court  minstrels,  of  the  type  represented  by  Demodocos  and 
Phemios,  who  brought  with  them  not  only  a  poetic  technique 
matured  by  long  experience  but  also  a  number  of  poems,  of 
which  the  newest  would  probably  be  the  most  in  favour.  This 
poetry  was  developed  and  expanded  by  the  court  minstrels  of 
subsequent  generations ;  but  the  subject-matter  became  stereo- 
typed and — precisely  as  in  England — everything  relating  to  the 
new  settlements  was  completely  ignored.  This  is  the  conclusion 
to  which  all  the  evidence  at  our  disposal  seems  to  me  to  point. 

We  must  now  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  Cyclic  poems.  And 
here  it  is  to  be  remembered  in  the  first  place  that  our  information 
is  very  defective,  if  not  actually  misleading.  Herodotus  (ll  117) 
doubted  Homer's  authorship  of  the  Cypria  on  the  ground  that 
it  contained  a  statement  in  direct  contradiction  with  the  Iliad, 
namely  that  Alexandros  arrived  at  Troy  with  Helen  on  the 
third  day  after  leaving  Sparta,  whereas  it  is  stated  in  the  Iliad 
(VI  290  ff.)  that  he  wandered  out  of  his  course  (to  Sidon)  when 
he  brought  her.  But  the  epitome  of  the  Cypria  which  has  come 
down  to  us  states  expressly  that  Alexandros  did  go  to  Sidon. 
Hence  we  can  only  conclude  that  its  trustworthiness  as  an 
authority  for  the  contents  of  the  poem  is  open  to  serious  doubt. 

Taking  the  evidence  as  it  stands  we  can  detect  at  once  an 
important  difference  between  the  Cypria  and  the  Nostoi  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  on  the  other.  In  the 
two  former  poems  the  action  seems  to  have  been  spread  over  a 
considerable  number  of  years,  while  in  the  latter  it  was  limited 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  235 

to  a  few  days  or  weeks.  Again,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  two 
former  treated  a  much  larger  number  of  events,  in  proportion  to 
their  length — events  too  which  were  not  so  closely  connected 
with  one  another.  Indeed  they  seem  to  have  been  almost  in 
the  nature  of  chronicles.  These  however  are  characteristics  of 
popular  rather  than  court  poetry. 

The  story  of  the  Cypria,  as  we  know  it,  bears  a  curious 
resemblance  to  the  Edda  trilogy  Reginsmal — Fdfnismal — 
Sigrdri'fumal  (cf  p.  13).  Both  the  Cyclic  poem  and  the  trilogy 
served  as  introductions  to  famous  stories.  Both  stories  were 
essentially  concerned  with  the  adventures  and  passions  of  human 
beings  ;  but  in  both  cases  the  introduction  begins  with  the  gods, 
and  the  origin  of  the  tragic  events  which  follow  is  traced 
ultimately  to  irresponsible,  not  to  say  mischievous,  conduct  on 
the  part  of  certain  deities.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
whole  theme  of  the  Northern  poems  is  a  late  addition  to  the 
story  of  SigurSr,  and  that  the  poems  themselves  were  composed 
as  an  introduction  to  this  story.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  Cypria 
was  of  somewhat  similar  origin  ?  The  latter  part  of  the  poem, 
if  we  are  to  trust  the  epitome,  contained  some  extraordinary 
features.  The  story  of  Odysseus'  pretended  madness  and  how 
he  was  eventually  compelled  to  join  the  expedition  is  difficult  to 
reconcile  with  the  general  tone  of  Homeric  poetry.  Again,  the 
army  is  represented  as  assembling  twice  at  Aulis  and  twice 
starting  for  Troy.  The  account  of  the  first  of  these  incidents 
agrees  with  what  is  stated  in  the  Iliad  (II  303  fif.),  while  the 
second  contains  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia,  according 
to  the  version  in  which  she  was  rescued  by  Artemis.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  worth  bearing  in  mind  that  the  poem  is  said  to 
have  ended  with  a  catalogue  of  the  Trojan  allies,  presumably  the 
same  list  which  we  find  in  the  Iliad  (II  816  fif.,  or  perhaps  840  ff.) 
— and  this  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  a  late  composition. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Nostoi  seems  to  have  been 
absence  of  unity.  Beginning  with  the  departure  of  the  Achaeans 
from  Troy,  it  narrated  the  adventures  which  befell  various  heroes 
on  their  return.  These  formed,  as  far  as  we  can  tell,  a  number 
of  quite  distinct  stories,  unconnected  with  one  another  except  at 
the  beginning.     If  we  may  judge  from  the  number  of  books 


236  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

contained  in  the  poem — five  as  against  eleven  in  the  Cypria — 
these  stories  must  have  been  very  short,  and  consequently  it  is 
perhaps  questionable  whether  we  are  justified  in  regarding  the 
Nostoi  as  an  epic  at  all,  except  in  the  same  sense  in  which  that 
term  is  applied  to  Hesiodic  poetry.  Indeed  it  seems  to  have 
had  an  affinity  with  the  latter  in  more  than  one  respect ;  for  the 
stories  of  the  various  heroes  were  probably  not  uninfluenced  by 
genealogical  interests.  In  the  same  light  we  may  perhaps 
regard  the  fact  that  one  scene  is  laid  in  an  Ionic  city  (Colophon). 
All  these  features  suggest  that  the  poem  came  into  existence  at  a 
fairly  late  period.  If  the  Cypria  was  designed  as  an  introduction 
to  the  story  of  the  siege  of  Troy  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  Nostoi  was  composed  as  an  epilogue  to  the  same.  On  the 
other  hand  many  scholars  hold  that  it  has  been  used  by  the 
Odyssey.  But  it  is  at  least  questionable  whether  the  references 
in  question  do  not  come  from  the  sources  of  the  poem  rather 
than  the  work  itselP. 

The  other  poems  of  the  Trojan  series — the  Aithiopis,  Little 
Iliad  and  Iliu  Persis — resembled  the  Cypria  and  the  Nostoi  in 
the  fact  that  they  dealt  with  a  considerable  number  of  separate 
episodes^.  But  the  resemblance  was  perhaps  only  superficial ; 
for  these  episodes  were  apparently  represented  as  following  one 
another  in  regular  sequence.  If  we  had  only  a  fragmentary 
epitome  of  the  Iliad  we  might  gather  from  it  much  the  same 
impression.  All  these  poems  were  on  a  small  scale,  eleven 
books  in  all ;  but,  unlike  the  Cypria  and  the  Nostoi,  the  action 
covered  only  a  short  interval  of  time.  Several  incidents  which 
they  related  are  referred  to  or  even  told  at  length  in  the 
Odyssey;  but  we  have  not  sufficient  information  to  enable  us 
to  determine  whether  the  references  are  taken  from  the  poems 
themselves.  The  chief  argument  to  the  contrary  is  that  these 
poems  seem  to  have  contained  certain  '  post- Homeric  '  features, 
notably  the  rite  of  purification  from  bloodshed,  in  the  Aithiopis, 

^  Athenaeus  {281  b,  395  d)  mentions  a  poem  called  KddoBos  'ArpeidCov,  of  which 
nothing  seems  to  be  known  elsewhere.  As  it  contained  at  least  three  books  it  can 
hardly  have  formed  part  of  the  Nostoi. 

2  Cf.  Aristotle,  Poe(.  xxin  4,  where  it  is  stated  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey 
provide  material  for  only  one  or  two  tragedies  each,  the  Cypria  for  many  and  the 
Little  Iliad  for  eight. 


I 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  237 

and  the  sacrifice  of  a  virgin  (Polyxene),  in  the  Iliu  Persis.  The 
former  case  is  especially  significant,  because — in  striking  contrast 
with  the  spirit  of  later  Greek  poetry — the  ideas  of  pollution 
and  purification  seem  to  be  entirely  ignored  in  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  ^ 

These  so-called  post-Homeric  features  are  of  course  really 
characteristics  of  a  more  primitive  religion,  and  it  would  be 
better  to  describe  them  as  *  non-Homeric  '  or  '  non-heroic'  But 
the  fact  that  such  practices  are  ignored  in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey, 
while  later  poets  had  a  special  affection  for  them,  renders  it 
probable  that  their  presence  in  the  Cyclic  poems  is  due  to 
popular  influence.  Are  we  then  justified  in  assigning  these 
poems  to  Stage  iv  of  our  scheme?  That  is  a  question  which, 
considering  the  evidence  at  our  disposal,  I  feel  a  good  deal  of 
hesitation  in  answering.  Certainly  they  cannot  have  differed 
from  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  in  anything  like  the  same  degree 
that  the  medieval  German  poems  or  even  the  heroic  poems  of 
the  Edda  differ  from  Beowulf.  They  may  actually  have  incor- 
porated a  good  deal  of  ancient  matter.  On  the  whole  the 
balance  of  probability  seems  to  me  to  incline  towards  the  view 
that  the  Cyclic  poems  are  derived  ultimately  from  the  same 
body  of  early  heroic  court  poetry  upon  which  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  themselves  are  based  ;  but  that  their  composition  took 
place  in  later  times,  when  the  'Homeric'  standard  was  no  longer 
preserved  in  its  purity. 

Whatever  may  be  the  case  with  the  Cyclic  poems  there  are 
other  poetic  works  which  may  be  assigned  to  Stage  IV  without 
hesitation.  For  our  purpose  it  will  perhaps  be  best  to  take  an 
illustration  from  the  drama  ;  for,  though  such  works  are  only 
secondary  authorities,  they  are  on  the  whole  less  open  to  ob- 
jection than  lost  poems  on  which  our  information  may  be 
misleading.  A  good  example  is  furnished  by  Aeschylus' 
Oresteia,  a  series  of  plays  which  deals  with  a  subject  treated 
at  some  length  in  the  Odyssey.  The  chief  incidents  are  the 
murder  of  Agamemnon  by  his  wife  Clytaimnestra,  the  vengeance 
taken   upon    her   by  her   son   Orestes,  the   persecution  of  the 

^  The  'purification'  of  the  house  of  Odysseus  (Od.  xxn  437  ff.)  is  of  an  essentially 
different  character  :  cf.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  p.  24  f. 


238  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

matricide  by  the  Erinyes,  his  purification  by  Apollo,  and  his 
trial  by  Athene  and  the  citizens  of  Athens.  In  the  Odyssey 
the  first  of  these  incidents,  the  murder,  is  ascribed  to  Aigisthos, 
Clytaimnestra's  paramour.  As  regards  the  second  we  have 
nothing  but  a  passing  reference  to  Clytaimnestra's  funeral. 
The  other  incidents  are  not  mentioned  at  all.  Again,  in 
Aeschylus'  work  prominence  is  given  to  an  attempt  on  Cly- 
taimnestra's part  to  placate  the  dead  Agamemnon,  to  an 
invocation  of  him  for  vengeance  by  his  children,  and  to  the 
instigation  of  the  Erinyes  by  Clytaimnestra's  ghost.  These 
features  too  are  unknown  in  the  Odyssey;  indeed  they  are 
directly  opposed  to  all  that  we  know  of  Homeric  religion. 
Then  again  we  find  frequent  and  detailed  allusions  to  tragic 
events  which  had  occurred  previously  in  the  history  of  Aga- 
memnon's family — especially  the  '  banquet  of  Thyestes '  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia.  On  these  matters  too  both  the 
Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  are  completely  silent.  Yet  in  the  latter 
case  this  silence  cannot  be  due  to  accident.  Either  the  poets 
were  ignorant  of  the  story,  or  they  deliberately  suppressed  it. 

Few  modern  readers  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  Oresteia  as 
an  almost  unrivalled  masterpiece  of  poetic  art,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  ideas  with  which  it  is  permeated  are  largely  strange 
and  unreal  to  us.  But  what  would  have  been  the  effect  if  such 
a  work  had  been  recited  at  one  of  those  courts  in  which  Homeric 
poetry  was  patronised  in  early  times  ?  There  can  scarcely  be 
any  doubt,  I  think,  that  the  recitation  would  not  have  been 
tolerated.  To  such  an  audience  the  poet's  religious  conceptions 
would  have  been  intelligible  enough,  but  only  as  products  of  a 
degraded  and  baneful  superstition,  while  his  skilful  presentation 
of  various  painful  incidents  in  the  history  of  a  royal  house — the 
most  distinguished  in  Greece — would  have  appeared  not  merely 
an  offence  against  good  manners  but  rather  a  wanton  insult  to 
the  kingly  class  in  general. 

The  social  conditions  and  the  ethical  standard  of  Aeschylus' 
time  differed  no  doubt  very  greatly  from  those  of  the  Homeric 
age.  This  is  a  subject  with  which  we  shall  have  to  deal  later. 
It  should  be  observed  however  that  nearly  all  the  special  features 
which  characterise  Aeschylus'  treatment  of  this  story  can  be 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY  AND   MINSTRELSY  239 

paralleled  from  Scandinavian  works  which  we  may  assign  to 
Stage  IV.  A  very  close  analogy  for  the  '  banquet  of  Thyestes ' 
is  furnished  by  the  story  of  GuSrun,  Atli  and  their  children  ; 
and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that,  though  Atli  at  least  was  a 
historical  character,  this  story  cannot  possibly  have  any  found- 
ation in  fact.  The  persecution  of  Orestes  by  the  Erinyes  may 
be  compared  with  Saxo's  story  (p.  246)  of  the  curse  inflicted 
upon  Haldanus^  likewise  as  a  result  of  the  shedding  of  '  kindred 
blood.'  With  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia  we  may  compare  that 
of  Vikarr  in  Gautreks  Saga  (cap.  7),  which  was  also  brought 
about  by  the  prevalence  of  contrary  winds.  Invocation  of  the 
dead  is  not  uncommon  in  such  works.  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
extremely  doubtful  whether  any  of  those  features  would  have 
been  permissible  in  early  heroic  poetry.  They  do  not  occur  in 
the  extant  poems  of  Stage  II. 

There  is  sufficient  evidence  that  most  of  the  characteristic 
features  of  Aeschylus'  story  were  not  invented  by  him,  though 
as  to  his  sources  our  information  is  not  very  satisfactory.  The 
lost  Oresteia  of  Stesichoros  was  doubtless  one  of  his  chief 
authorities,  and  there  is  some  reason  for  believing  that  the 
version  given  in  this  work  differed  from  the  Homeric  account 
quite  as  much  as  that  of  Aeschylus.  Beyond  Stesichoros  we 
may  perhaps  think  of  the  Cyclic  poems,  especially  the  Nostoi ; 
but  it  is  very  doubtful  if  they  would  have  furnished  such  a  very 
markedly  divergent  form  of  the  story.  Stesichoros  himself  is 
said  to  have  treated  his  authorities  with  great  freedom.  But 
some  of  the  non- Homeric  features  can  hardly  be  due  to 
deliberate  alteration.  We  may  notice  especially  the  differences 
in  the  personal  relations  of  Agamemnon's  family.  In  the 
Iliad  he  is  the  son  of  Atreus  ;  Stesichoros  and  others  call  him 
son  of  Pleisthenes.  In  the  Iliad  he  has  three  daughters,  Lao- 
dice,  Chrysothemis  and  Iphianassa;  Aeschylus  gives  him  two, 
Electra  and  Iphigeneia,  the  latter  of  whom  seems  to  have  figured 
also  in  the  Cypria^     There  is  also  a  good  deal  of  discrepancy 

1  This  incident  may  also  be  compared  with  a  passage  in  the  Iliad  (ix  453  ff.). 
Phoinix'  speech  (perhaps  designedly)  shows  a  nearer  approximation  to  this  type  of 
religion  (cf.  also  v.  568  ff.)  than  any  other  part  of  the  Homeric  poems. 

^  The  version  of  the  sacrifice  given  in  the  Cypria  (cf.  p.  235)  is  probably  to  be 


240  EARLY   GREEK    POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  [CHAP. 

in  regard  to  the  scene  of  the  events.  In  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey 
Agamemnon  belongs  to  Mycenae;  in  Aeschylus'  account  this 
place  is  forgotten  and  the  story  transferred  to  Argos,  while 
Pindar,  apparently  also  Stesichoros  and  Simonides^  placed  it 
at  Amyclai  (close  to  Sparta).  Now  these  are  just  the  kind 
of  corruptions  and  discrepancies  which  characterise  popular 
poetry  everywhere.  Taken  together  with  the  other  non- Homeric 
features  discussed  above  they  seem  to  me  to  afford  ground  for 
suspecting  that  Stesichoros  and  his  followers  drew  upon  a 
popular  and  perhaps  Doric  or  Peloponnesian  version  of  the 
story-  which  was  independent  of  Homeric  poetry.  Their  work 
then  would  be  similar  in  more  than  one  respect  to  that  of  those 
Norse  poets  who  rehabilitated  the  old  story  of  SigurSr  and 
GuSrun  after  the  (strophic)  type  of  their  own  national  poetry. 

The  course  of  our  discussion  has  led  us  to  conclude  that 
the  Homeric  poems  are  products  of  court  poetry  or  minstrelsy 
in  direct  continuation  of  that  type  of  minstrelsy  which  we  con- 
sidered at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter.  As  yet  however  we 
have  expressed  no  definite  opinion  as  to  the  length  of  time 
involved  in  their  development,  although  we  have  noticed  that 
the  evidence  commonly  adduced  in  favour  of  a  long  interval 
between  the  earliest  and  latest  portions  of  the  poems  is  highly 
unsatisfactory.  It  must  be  admitted  that  beyond  a  certain  point 
the  evidence  at  our  disposal  does  not  admit  of  anything  more 
than  an  estimation  of  probability. 

We  have  seen  that  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that 
the  history  of  heroic  poetry  in  Aeolis  and  in  England  proceeded 
on  similar  lines  in  several  respects,  and  also  that  the  chief  monu- 
ment of  English  heroic  poetry  was  probably  composed  within 
not  much  more  than  a  century  after  certain  events  which  it 

regarded  as  later  than  the  other,  although  it  occurred  in  what  was  doubtless  a  much 
earlier  poem. 

1  Cf.  Pindar,  Pyth.  xi  32  ;  Stesichoros  (Bergk),  fragm.  39. 

-  The  Spartans  possessed  a  tomb  of  Agamemnon  at  Amyclai  (cf.  Pausanias,  iii 
19.  6).  Indeed,  from  Herodotus,  vn  159,  it  would  seem  that  they  claimed  him  as 
one  of  their  own  kings  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Xerxes.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
a  similar  version  of  the  story  is  implied  in  Od.  iv  514  f. ;  but  the  inference  is  doubtful. 
Aigisthos  rules  Mycenae  (after  Agamemnon's  death   in  in  305. 


Xl]  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  24I 

records.  Now  in  any  comparison  between  English  and  Greek 
heroic  poetry  we  must  of  course  leave  out  of  account  the  frequent 
Christian  allusions  which  occur  in  the  former  (cf.  p.  47  ff.);  for 
there  is  no  reason  whatever  for  supposing  that  any  change 
comparable  with  the  introduction  of  Christianity  came  over  the 
Greek  world  during  the  times  which  saw  the  development  of 
Homeric  poetry.  Apart  from  this  element  anachronisms  are 
not  very  numerous  or  marked ;  but  they  do  occur.  Thus  the 
road  which  leads  to  the  Danish  king's  dwelling  is  described 
as  a  Roman  road  (straet),  paved  with  stone  (Beow,  320),  while 
the  members  of  the  same  king's  court  {ib.  768)  are  termed 
'  inhabitants  of  a  Chester'  {ceasterbiiendum).  Such  cases  may  be 
compared  with  the  Homeric  inconsistencies  discussed  in  the 
last  chapter — e.g.  perhaps  the  occasional  use  of  iron  for  weapons. 
It  can  hardly  be  maintained,  I  think,  that  the  latter  are  of  greater 
significance  than  the  anachronisms  in  English  heroic  poetry. 

This  absence  of  striking  anachronisms  decidedly  favours  the 
view  that  the  period  involved  in  the  development  of  Homeric 
poetry  was  not  very  long.  Against  such  a  conclusion  it  may 
of  course  be  urged  that  there  is  a  constantly  recurring  phrase 
{oloL  vvv  ^poToi  elai)  which  contrasts  the  '  men  of  the  present 
day,'  i.e.  the  men  of  the  poet's  own  time,  with  the  heroes  of  the 
siege  of  Troy,  emphasizing  the  superior  strength  of  the  latter. 
But  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  suppose  that  a  long  interval  of 
time  is  intended  here.  The  old  Nestor  uses  almost  the  same 
expression  in  II.  I  272  (roov  ot  vvv  ^poToi  ela-tv  iircx^ovLOL), 
when  he  compares  the  men  among  whom  he  was  then  living 
with  those  he  had  known  in  his  youth.  Again,  in  Od.  viii  i22f., 
Odysseus  contrasts  the  '  men  of  the  present  day '  (oaaoc  vvv 
^poToi  elaiv  eirl  x^ovl)  with  the  '  men  of  old  '  (dvSpdai  irpore- 
poiaiv);  but  by  the  latter  phrase  he  means  persons  belonging 
to  the  generation  next  above  his  own  (Heracles  and  Eurytos). 
The  same  usage  occurs  elsewhere.  Thus  in  II.  IX  524  Phoinix 
speaks  of  the  '  glories  of  those  heroes  that  were  of  old '  (tmv 
irpocrdev  iirevOofieOa  Kkea  dvBpcov  rjpcixev) ;  but  the  story  which 
he  proceeds  to  relate  is  of  Meleagros,  the  uncle  of  Diomedes. 
Indeed  persons  of  more  than  two  generations  back  are  seldom 
mentioned  in  the  Homeric  poems. 


242  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY         [CHAP. 

An  expression  very  similar  to  the  one  last  quoted  is  used  by 
Hesiod  (Theog.  99  fif.)  when  he  speaks  of  the  minstrel  as  sing- 
ing the  "  glories  of  men  of  old  and  the  blessed  gods  who  hold 
01ympos\"  Here  of  course  the  reference  is  not  to  persons  of 
the  last  generation,  but  to  the  heroes  of  Homeric  poetry.  In 
the  Works  and  Days,  vv.  I56ff,  174  ff,  the  Heroic  Age  is 
distinguished  with  all  possible  clearness  from  the  period  in 
which  the  poet  himself  lived.  It  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that 
antiquarian  interest  forms  a  prominent  feature  in  all  Hesiodic 
poetry.  Even  in  the  Works  and  Days  it  is  obvious  enough, 
although  such  topics  have  little  in  common  with  the  main 
theme  of  the  poem.  In  the  Catalogue  we  meet  with  such 
characters  as  Hellen  and  Doros,  who  owe  their  existence  to 
speculations  in  tribal  origins.  The  poetry  of  the  following 
period  seems  to  have  been  essentially  of  a  genealogical  character. 

For  such  antiquarian  interest  the  Homeric  poems  furnish 
no  evidence,  except  perhaps  in  the  Nekyia.  Not  only  are  the 
genealogies  of  the  heroes  seldom  carried  back  more  than  two 
generations,  but — what  is  more  important — there  is  scarcely 
any  reference  to  their  descendants,  beyond  the  first  generation. 
Again,  Achilles  is  said  to  have  been  singing  the  'glories  of 
heroes'  (/cXea  dvBpcou)  when  he  received  the  embassy  (II.  IX 
189);  but  it  is  not  stated  that  these  were  heroes  of  former  times. 
The  songs  of  Demodocos  and  Phemios  deal  with  the  adventures 
of  the  Achaeans  at  Troy  and  on  their  return  home.  That  this 
is  no  accident  is  shown  by  Od.  I  351  f,  where  Telemachos  pleads 
in  excuse  for  Phemios  that  "  men  always  prize  that  song  the 
most  which  rings  newest  in  their  ears."  No  sentiment  could 
well  be  more  foreign  to  the  tone  of  Hesiodic  or  post-Hesiodic 
poetry  than  this.  If  any  poet  of  that  school  had  interested 
himself  in  contemporary  history  our  knowledge  of  the  eighth 
century  would  not  be  the  blank  which  unfortunately  it  is. 
Clearly  the  only  heroic  poetry  known  to  them  was  the  KXeea 
irporepayv  avOpooTrcov.     That  means  very  much  the  same  thing 

1  el  yap  rii  kolI  Tr4v6os  ^x'^''  ffOKTjdi'i  6v/ji(f 

dj^rai  Kpa8LT)v  a.Kaxi)tJ-evo%,   avrap  doi56s 
M.ov<rd(i)i>  depdiruv  KX^ea  TrpoTip<i)i>  dvOpdiiruv 
i)/xvri<rTi  /idKapds  re  Oeoi/s  ol  'OXvfixov  ^xo^'"'"')   * •■'■•^' 


XI]  EARLY   GREEK   POETRY   AND   MINSTRELSY  243 

as  Einhard's  neterum  regiim  actus  et  bella  or  the  aiitiquoriim 
actus  regiimqiie  certamina  sung  by  Bernlef  (cf.  pp.  80,  87).  At 
such  a  time  if  anyone  was  composing  a  heroic  poem  it  would 
probably  have  seemed  natural  enough  to  use  the  formulae  with 
which  several  of  the  Edda  poems  begin  :  "  It  was  long  ago,"  or 
"  It  was  in  early  times  that,"  etc.  On  the  other  hand  Tele- 
machos'  remark  would  be  perfectly  appropriate  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  Teutonic  poetry.  We  have  seen  (p.  85)  that  in 
Beowulf  one  of  the  Danish  king's  knights  begins  to  compose 
a  poem  on  the  hero's  adventure  within  a  few  hours  of  the  event. 
Procopius'  account  of  Hermegisklos  and  Radiger  (p.  97  fif.)  must 
also  be  borne  in  mind,  although  this  story  may  not  have  attained 
the  form  of  an  epic  poem. 

The  conclusion  then  to  which  the  Teutonic  evidence  leads  us 
is  that  at  all  events  the  type  of  narrative  was  fixed  very  early. 
The  growth  of  the  Homeric  poems  may  or  may  not  have  taken 
longer  than  that  of  their  Teutonic  counterparts.  Records  of 
the  eighth  century  B.C.  speak  of  /cXeea  irporkpwv  avdpoairwv ; 
records  of  the  eighth  century  A.D.  speak  of  antiqiwrum  actus. 
But  in  neither  case  do  the  poems  themselves  give  expression 
to  a  consciousness  of  the  antiquity  of  the  events  which  they 
relate. 


244  THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE  [CHAP. 


NOTE   VI.     THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  endeavoured  to  estimate  in  general  terms 
the  position  of  the  Homeric  poems  relatively  to  the  poetry  of  the  Heroic 
Age  itself  on  the  one  hand  and  to  Hesiod  and  genealogical  poetry  on  the 
other.  I  have  avoided  entering  into  details  in  regard  to  the  relationship 
between  the  extant  poems  and  the  lost  Cyclic  poems  because  I  did  not  wish 
to  load  the  discussion  with  matter  which,  owing  to  the  fragmentary  nature 
of  the  evidence,  must  largely  be  of  a  hypothetical  character.  At  the  same 
time  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  Trojan  Catalogue  (II.  II  8i6ff.)  does 
contain  some  indications  which  may  permit  the  date  of  its  composition  to 
be  determined  with  a  fair  amount  of  probability. 

According  to  Proclus'  Chrestomathy^  the  Cypria  contained  (apparently 
at  the  end)  a  KardXoyos  tu>v  toIs  TpaxrX  (rvfji.fiaxr}(TdvT(t)v,  and  it  is  commonly 
believed^  that  this  is  the  list  which  has  been  incorporated  in  our  text  of  the 
Iliad.  Proclus'  words,  taken  literally,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  list 
did  not  include  the  Trojans  themselves.  The  '  allies  '  proper  begin  perhaps 
at  V.  840,  and  consequently  it  has  been  held  that  vv.  816 — 839  are  a  later 
addition.  Considering  the  nature  of  the  evidence,  this  view  can  scarcely  be 
regarded  as  beyond  question.  But  there  certainly  are  noticeable  differences 
between  the  first  and  second  portions  of  the  list,  apart  from  the  fact  that  the 
former  contains  no  national  names  except  TpSxs  and  Aapbdvioi.  The  first 
part  is  much  more  dependent  on  the  Iliad  than  is  the  second.  Thus  all 
the  personal  names  which  occur  in  it  are  to  be  found  in  other  parts  of  the 
poem,  while  several  passages  (eight  verses^  out  of  the  twenty-four)  have 
been  borrowed  practically  verbatim.  On  the  other  hand,  out  of  the  twenty- 
five  persons  mentioned  in  the  second  part  of  the  list  eleven  are  not  met  with 
elsewhere  in  the  Iliad,  while  four  of  the  others  are  not  elsewhere  associated 
with  the  nations  (Mysians,  Phrygians  and  Meiones)  to  which  they  belong 
here.  Again,  though  several  verses  show  acquaintance  with  other  passages 
in  the  Iliad,  there  is  apparently  no  single  verse  which  has  been  borrowed 
entire.  The  most  striking  fact  however  is  that  in  two  cases  we  have 
references  to  heroes  who  are  said  to  have  been  slain  by  Achilles  in  the 
river.  Neither  of  these  persons  is  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the  river 
fight  given  in  the  Iliad.  In  explanation  of  this  it  has  been  suggested  that 
another  scene  of  this  kind  occurred  in  the  Aithiopis  ;  but  we  have  no  evidence 
to  this  effect,  and  it  is  surely  at  least  as  probable  that  they  are  derived  from 
a  different  version  of  the  river  fight  described  in  the  Iliad. 

^  Cf.  Kinkel,  Epicorutn  Graec.  Fragmenta,  p.  20.  ^  See  the  Addenda. 

3  V.  822  f.  from  XII  99  f.,  vv.  831 — 4  from  XI  329 — 332,  v.  838  f.  from  XII  96  f. 
The  borrowing  of  vv.  831 — 4  can  hardly  be  ascribed  to  the  same  man  who  took 
Amphios  (the  son  of  Selagos)  from  v  612.  Ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the  poem 
such  as  we  find  here  is  very  rare ;  its  occurrence  therefore  in  what  is  probably  a  very 
late  addition  to  the  text  deserves  to  be  noticed. 


XI]  THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE  245 

In   both   parts    of  the    list   we    meet   with  a  considerable   number  of 
geographical  names — of  cities,  rivers  and  mountains — many  of  which  (five 
in  the  first  part  and  twelve  in  the  second)  do  not  occur  elsewhere  in  the 
^  Iliad.     The   majority  of  the   names   mentioned   belong  to  the  immediate 

1  neighbourhood   of  the    coast,    and    it   is   a   fact   worth   noting   that   these 

i  almost  all  fall  into  three  distinct  groups — in  Paphlagonia,  the  Troad  and 
Caria  respectively.  There  is  a  great  gap  covering  apparently  the  whole 
of  the  Bithynian  coast  and  another  embracing  the  coast  of  the  Aegean 
from  Troy  itself  to  Mycale.  In  explanation  of  this  fact  it  has  been  sug- 
gested^ that  the  names  in  the  coast-districts  are  derived  from  an  early 
j;,  poem  or  poems  on  the  voyage  of  the  Argo.    This  hypothesis  might  certainly 

I  account  for  the  mention  of  the  Paphlagonian  names  in  v.  852  ff.     But  they 

are  the  only  names  in  the  second  part  of  the  list  for  which  it  gives  any 
explanation  ;  for  the  suggestion  that  the  references  to  the  Carian  localities 
in  V.  868  f  are  connected  in  any  way  with  the  story  of  the  Argo  can  hardly 
be  taken  seriously.  Hence,  if  we  are  to  trxist  the  hypothesis  in  any  form, 
it  is  more  probable  that  v.  853  ff.  are  a  subsequent  addition  to  the  list. 
But  even  in  the  first  part  the  evidence  in  its  favour  is  of  the  most  slender 
description 2.  Of  the  thirteen  place-names  which  occur  in  this  section  eight 
are  found  elsewhere  in  the  Iliad  ;  of  the  rest  only  two  apparently  are 
mentioned  in  the  accounts  of  the  voyage  of  the  Argo  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  What  is  more  important  however  is  that  these  accounts  do 
mention  a  considerable  number  of  Bithynian  localities ^  both  on  the  coast 
of  the  Sea  of  Marmara  and  on  that  of  the  Black  Sea,  as  well  as  several 
peoples  who  do  not  appear  in  the  Catalogue.  We  must  conclude  then  that 
this  hypothesis  in  no  way  accounts  for  the  peculiarities  of  the  Catalogue. 

The  true  explanation  is  not  far  to  seek.  It  was  well  known  to  the 
ancients  that  the  Bithynians  were  an  intrusive  Thracian  people  who  had 
crossed  over  from  Europe.  Again,  the  Aegean  coast,  at  all  events  from 
the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion  southwards*,  was  covered  with  Aeolic  and  Ionic 
settlements.  Greek  tradition  unanimously  held  that  these  settlements  were 
planted  subsequently  to  the  Trojan  War,  and  we  have  no  reason  for  sup- 
posing that  the  author  of  the  Catalogue  thought  differently.  At  the  same 
time  we  may  infer  from  his  silence  that  he  did  not  claim  to  know  what 
peoples  had  occupied  these  regions  previously.     On  the  other  hand  he  did 

1  Cf.  Niese,  Der  homerische  Schiffskatalog,  p.  53  ff. 

2  The  argument  that  Abydos  and  Sestos  cannot  have  been  connected  except  in  a 
irepiirXovs  (cf.  Niese,  o/>.  cit.  p.  54)  is  one  which  will  appeal  probably  to  no  student  of 
early  Teutonic  history. 

'  Cf.  ApoUon.  Rhod.  i  ii64ff.,  II  649  ff.,  720  ff.,  901  ff.,  etc. 

*  It  is  held  that  the  Aeolic  settlements  in  the  south  of  the  Troad  were  established 
at  quite  a  late  period,  probably  in  the  seventh  century.  But  we  are  not  justified  in 
assuming  that  no  such  settlements  existed  previously.  It  is  highly  probable  that  the 
whole  of  this  district  was  devastated  by  the  barbarians  whose  remains  have  been 
found  at  Troy  (cf.  p.  295,  note). 


246  THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE  [CHAP. 

claim  such  knowledge  of  the  previous  occupants  not  only  of  the  Troad  but 
also  of  the  Carian  coast. 

This  fact  surely  furnishes  the  means  of  dating  the  composition  of  the 
Catalogue  with  a  fair  amount  of  probability.  It  is  generally  agreed  that 
the  Ionic  settlements  were  later  than  the  Aeolic  ;  but  probably  no  one  will 
contend  that  the  Greek  occupation  of  Miletos  and  Mycale  began  appreciably 
later  than  the  end  of  the  tenth  century.  It  is  not  necessary  of  course  to 
suppose  that  these  places  were  still  in  Carian  hands  when  the  Catalogue 
was  composed.  But  at  the  same  time  the  memory  of  their  former  possessors 
is  not  likely  to  have  been  perpetuated  in  an  incidental  reference  like  this 
much  more  than  a  century  after  they  became  Greek  settlements.  The  more 
northern  part  of  the  list  contains  at  all  events  nothing  incompatible  with 
the  view  that  it  was  drawn  up  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighth  century.  The 
excavations  in  the  Troad  have  certainly  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  that 
district  was  overrun  by  barbarians.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  this 
took  place  at  the  time  of  the  Bithynian  invasion,  whether  the  two  movements 
were  connected  in  any  way  or  not.  The  evidence  on  the  whole  seems  to 
indicate  that  the  barbarian  occupation  occurred  not  very  long  before  the 
foundation  of  the  Ionic  colonies  on  the  Hellespont.  There  is  nothing  very 
remarkable  in  the  fact  that  the  places  mentioned  in  the  Catalogue  lie  chiefly 
on  the  coast ;  for  such  places  would  naturally  be  the  most  familiar  to  the 
Asiatic  Greeks,  who  must  have  been  a  seafaring  people  to  some  extent  from 
the  beginning. 

Now  in  other  parts  of  the  Iliad  we  find  mention  of  several  peoples  which 
apparently  occupied  the  districts  left  blank  in  the  Catalogue.  Thus  in  x  429, 
XX  329  we  hear  of  the  Caucones,  who  seem  to  have  belonged  to  Bithynia^. 
In  XXI  86  f.,  VI  396  f.  (cf.  II  691,  etc.)  we  meet  with  peoples  called  Leleges 
and  Cilices,  the  positions  of  which  are  quite  definitely  stated.  The  former 
are  said  to  have  dwelt  in  the  valley  of  the  Satnioeis,  in  the  south  of  the 
Troad,  the  latter  somewhat  further  to  the  east,  about  the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion. 
Again,  in  Od.  xi  Sigfif.  we  hear  of  a  certain  Eurypylos  the  son  of  Telephos, 
chief  of  the  Ceteioi.  Telephos  and  his  son  figured  in  the  Cypria  and  the 
Little  Iliad  ;  and  Greek  tradition  placed  their  home  (Teuthrania)  in  the 
region  between  the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion  and  the  Hermos.  The  name 
Kr]Teioi  has  been  connected  with  that  of  the  Hittites  (Kheta)  ;  but  without 
going  into  this  question  we  may  probably  follow  Strabo  (xill  r.  70)  in  tracing 
a  reminiscence  of  them  in  the  name  of  a  stream  called  Ceteios,  a  tributary 
of  the  Caicos.  The  Catalogue  contains  no  reference  to  any  of  these  peoples, 
presumably  because  their  names  were  not  familiar  to  the  author.  In  later 
times  we  hear  no  more  of  the  Ceteioi,  while  Cihces  are  found  only  in  Cilicia. 
The  Leleges  indeed  are  mentioned  frequently  and  on  both  sides  of  the 
Aegean,  but  only  as  a  people  of  the  past. 

It  is  an  easy  and  popular  method  of  interpretation  to  discredit  evidence 
for  which  no  obvious  explanation  is  forthcoming ;  and  following  this  method 

^  Cf.  especially  Strabo  xii  3.  5. 


XI]  THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE  247 

many  scholars  have  regarded  the  names  under  discussion  as  phantoms. 
The  point  against  which  adverse  criticism  has  chiefly  been  directed  is  the 
location  of  the  Cilices  in  the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
however  that  we  have  no  evidence  earlier  than  the  seventh  century  for 
the  presence  of  a  people  called  Cilices  in  the  land  which  ultimately  bore 
*  their  name.     In  the   eighth  century  this  people  apparently  dwelt  to  the 

north  of  the  Taurus.  In  earlier  times  we  hear  of  them,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  only  in  the  '  Poem  of  Pentaur,'  a  work  which  celebrates  the  battle 
fought  at  Kadesh  early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  between  Rameses  II  and 
the  Hittites.  It  is  there  stated  that  the  "chief  of  Kheta  had  come,  having 
gathered  together  all  countries  from  the  ends  of  the  sea  to  the  land  of  Kheta, 
which  came  entire^"  In  addition  to  a  number  of  Syrian  names  which  occur 
in  the  accounts  of  earlier  wars  the  poem  contains  a  group  of  new  names 
of  peoples,  consisting  of  Pidasa,  Dardenut,  Masa,  Kalakisha  and  Luka, 
with  two  others  2.  The  last  two  of  these  names  are  almost  universally 
identified  with  the  Cilices  and  Lycians,  and  the  first  is  usually  connected 
with  the  name  llr]haa-os  or  n^Sao-a,  while  many  scholars  accept  the  identi- 
fication of  the  second  and  third  with  the  Dardanoi  and  Mysians  respectively. 
If  the  names  Pidasa  and  IljjSacros'  are  connected  we  are  brought  to  the 
Aegean,  where  we  find  both  Pedasos  on  the  Satnioeis  and  Pedasa^  in  Caria. 
Evidence  to  the  same  effect  is  furnished  by  the  procession  of  ten  warriors 
depicted  on  one  of  the  monuments*.  Of  these  five  are  of  the  Hittite  type 
and  two  Semitic  ;  but  the  other  three  are  of  Aegean  physiognomy  and  wear 
different  varieties  of  that  feather  headdress  which  is  known  in  Crete  from 
much  earlier  times  ^.  When  we  find  that  this  earliest  reference  to  the  Cilices 
associates  them  with  a  group  of  peoples  ^  of  whom  some  clearly  belong  to 
the  west  of  Asia  Minor,  and  some  quite  probably  to  the  north-west  corner 
of  the  peninsula,  it  must  be  admitted  that  we  have  no  valid  ground  for 
discrediting  the  evidence  of  the  Iliad  as  to  their  presence  around  the  Gulf 
of  Adramyttion. 

^  Cf.  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  iii  p.  138. 

'^  One  of  these  names  has  been  variously  read  as  Maunna  or  Ariunna  {Arzvena) 
and  identified  with  the  MT^ofes  and  'IXiov  of  the  Iliad,  as  well  as  with  Oroanda  and  other 
places.  The  other,  Keshkesh,  seems  to  bear  the  same  relationship  to  the  cuneiform 
Kasku  which  the  Eg.  Kalakisha  {Kelekesh  in  Breasted's  orthography)  bears  to  the 
cuneiform  Hilakku  (beside  Hilak).  If  -ku  is  a  suffix  Kasku  may  possibly  be  con- 
nected with  Rapes  (which  seems  to  represent  an  earlier  Ka{s)-ar-). 

^  Perhaps  also  called  Pedasos  (cf.  Herod.  V  121).  According  to  Strabo  (xiii  i.  59) 
this  place  also  belonged  to  the  Leleges  who,  he  says,  once  possessed  a  considerable 
part  of  Caria  and  Pisidia. 

■•  Reproduced  in  W.  Max  Miiller's  Asien  u.  Europa,  p.  361. 

"  Cf.  p.  190,  note  1. 

*  There  is  no  question  here  of  a  national  migration  on  the  part  of  these  peoples. 
They  were  mercenaries  hired  by  the  Hittite  king,  who  "left  not  silver  nor  gold  in  his 
land  (but)  he  plundered  it  of  all  his  possessions  and  gave  to  every  country,  in  order  to 
bring  them  with  him  to  battle."     (Cf.  Breasted,  op.  cii.,  pp.  129,  note,  138.) 


248  THE   TROJAN    CATALOGUE  [CHAP.  XI 

On  the  other  hand  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  later  authorities  know 
nothing  of  Cilices  in  this  region  ;  neither  do  they  mention  Leleges  in  the 
south  of  the  Troad  or  Ceteioi  anywhere.  If  these  peoples  had  survived 
the  Aeolic  invasion  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  could  have  perished 
subsequently  without  leaving  some  trace  of  their  existence  in  Greek  tradition. 
The  Pelasgoi  of  Larissa  in  the  valley  of  the  Hermos^  appear  to  have  been 
remembered  in  tradition,  although  their  territories  were  occupied  by  the 
Aeolians — probably  at  quite  an  early  date.  The  presumption  then  is  that 
the  other  peoples  had  already  been  destroyed  by  Greek  raids — as  is  stated 
in  the  Iliad — or  else  that  they  had  been  expelled  or  absorbed  by  the  sur- 
rounding nations  before  the  Greek  colonies  were  fully  established.  In  either 
case  we  shall  have  to  carry  back  the  poetic  traditions  relating  to  them 
practically  to  the  beginning  of  the  first  millennium. 

We  have  seen  that  it  is  difficult  to  date  the  composition  of  the  Trojan 
Catalogue — at  all  events  the  latter  part  of  it — after  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  valid  reason  for  denying  that 
the  Cypria  as  a  whole  may  have  been  composed  about  this  time  or  for 
supposing  that  the  Catalogue  ever  existed  independently.  It  is  in  the 
preceding  period — presumably  between  the  eleventh  and  eighth  centuries — 
that  we  must  place  the  composition  of  the  Iliad,  though  its  form  may  not 
have  been  finally  settled  when  the  Cypria  came  into  existence.  Any  more 
definite  conclusion  is  rendered  difficult  by  the  unsatisfactory  nature  of  our 
information  regarding  the  Cypria.  But  the  general  impression  conveyed  by 
the  epitome  is  that  an  appreciable  portion  of  the  poem  was  derived  from 
incidental  references  in  the  Iliad,  and  that  as  a  whole  it  possessed  to  a 
considerable  degree  the  characteristics  of  popular  poetry.  If  this  im- 
pression is  correct  we  must  conclude  that  heroic  court-poetry  was  in  its 
decadence  when  the  Cypria  was  composed  ;  and  consequently  we  shall  do 
well  to  place  the  flourishing  period,  which  produced  the  great  epics,  at  least 
a  century  earlier. 

'  Cf.  Strabo  xiil  3.  3  f.  I  see  no  reason  for  doubting  the  existence  of  traditions 
relating  to  the  presence  of  Pelasgoi  in  this  region.  The  identification  of  Larissa 
Phriconis  with  the  Larissa  of  the  Iliad  (11  841,  xvii  301)  seems  to  be  at  least  as  likely 
as  any  of  the  others  which  have  been  proposed. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SUPERNATURAL   ELEMENTS    IN   THE    HOMERIC   POEMS. 

In  Chapter  VI  we  saw  that  the  heroic  poetry  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  was  very  largely  affected  by  folk-tales  ;  that  supernatural 
beings  were  frequently  introduced,  while  ordinary  human  beings 
or  animals  were  credited  with  supernatural  properties — in  short 
that  the  distinction  between  natural  and  supernatural  was  not 
clearly  drawn.  We  saw  further  that  these  features  were  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  later  stages  of  heroic  poetry — that  on  the 
contrary  some  of  them  were  prominent  even  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
poems,  while  the  others  appeared  to  be  of  equal  antiquity. 

The  same  phenomena  appear  in  Greek  heroic  poetry. 
Mythical  beings  and  features  obviously  derived  from  folk-tales 
figure  quite  as  frequently  as  in  the  Teutonic  poems.  Their 
presence  is  often  regarded  as  a  proof  that  the  stories  into  which 
they  enter  and  the  persons  with  whom  they  are  brought  into 
contact  are  themselves  products  of  myth  or  fiction.  This  is  a 
question  with  which  we  shall  have  to  deal  in  the  following 
chapters.  For  the  present  it  will  be  sufficient  to  quote  what 
may  be  regarded  as  a  typical  expression  of  the  attitude  of  more 
cautious  scholars  towards  the  problem  of  the  story  of  Troy^: 
"It  is  fantastic  to  treat  the  siege  of  Troy  as  merely  a  solar  myth 
— to  explain  the  abduction  of  Helen  by  Paris  as  the  extinction 
of  the  sunlight  in  the  West,  and  Troy  as  the  region  of  the  dawn 
beset  and  possessed  by  the  sunrise.  It  is  equally  fantastic,  and 
more  illogical,  to  follow  the  rationalising  method — to  deduct  the 
supernatural  element,  and  claim  the  whole  residuum  as  historical 

^  Jebb,  Introduction  to  Homer,  p.  147. 


250        THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS     [CHAP. 

fact.  Homer  says  that  Achilles  slew  Hector  with  the  aid  of 
Athene.  We  are  not  entitled  to  omit  Athene,  and  still  to  affirm 
that  Achilles  slew  Hector." 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  goas  are  introduced  in  the 
Homeric  poems  in  many  different  ways.  The  incident  just 
cited — where  Athene  takes  the  form  of  Deiphobos  (II.  xxii 
226  ff.) — belongs  to  one  of  the  commonest  types,  and  one  which 
requires  comparatively  little  imagination,  if  we  are  prepared  to 
grant  the  existence  of  a  belief  that  the  gods  were  capable  of 
disguising  themselves  in  human  form.  Sometimes  again  deities 
render  themselves  visible  only  to  certain  individuals  out  of  a 
crowd,  as  in  II.  I  194  ff,  where  Athene  intervenes  in  order  to  stay 
Achilles  from  drawing  his  sword  upon  Agamemnon.  Another 
type  is  the  disguise  of  gods  as  birds,  as  when  we  find  Athene 
and  Apollo  sitting  upon  an  oak  in  the  form  of  vultures,  before 
the  combat  of  Hector  and  Aias  {ib.  Vli  58  ff.).  On  other  occasions 
birds  are  sent  by  a  god  as  a  sign  of  his  favour  or  protection, 
as  in  II.  XXIV  315  ff-  and  many  other  passages.  Somewhat 
akin  to  this  type  is  the  dream  sent  by  Zeus  to  Agamemnon 
in  II.  II  5  ff 

It  has  been  remarked  that  in  such  cases  as  these  a  sceptical 
person  might  have  accounted  for  everything  that  passed  without 
reference  to  any  intervention  on  the  part  of  a  deity.  But  there 
are  a  number  of  other  cases  where  the  action  is  affected  by  gods 
in  ways  which  could  not  be  accounted  for  on  any  rationalistic 
hypothesis.  We  may  refer  to  II.  Ill  380  ff.,  where  Aphrodite 
snatches  Paris  away  from  Menelaos  and  conveys  him  to  his  own 
house  in  Troy.  Or  again  to  several  passages  in  the  Diomedeia 
where  deities  show  themselves  almost  or  quite  without  disguise 
and  even  take  an  active  part  in  the  fighting.  A  still  greater 
amount  of  imagination  perhaps  is  required  for  the  scenes  which 
depict  the  quarrels  and  amusements  of  the  gods  in  Olympos, 
and  their  schemes  for  helping  or  destroying  the  combatants. 
It  has  been  held  that  all  such  passages  as  these  belong  to  a 
later  period  than  those  of  the  less  imaginative  types  described 
above. 

In  Teutonic  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  very  few  notices  relating  to  the  gods  have  been  preserved. 


XII]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  25 1 

The  appearances  of  Othin  in  Volsunga  Saga  (cf.  p.  1 14)  may  be 
compared  with  those  of  Apollo  in  the  Iliad  or  Athene  in  the 
Odyssey  ;  for  his  divinity  is  not  recognised  at  once,  though  he 
does  not  take  the  form  of  a  person  known  to  his  favourites. 
Again,  though  I  know  no  exact  Homeric  parallel  to  the  incident 
in  Sigmundr's  last  battle,  when  the  hero's  sword  is  shattered  at 
the  touch  of  Othin's  javelin,  the  idea  is  in  complete  harmony 
with  several  passages  in  the  Diomedeia  (e.g.  V  i2gf{.,  438  ff., 
VI  128  ff.,  306  f).  It  is  true  that  we  do  not  know  whether  these 
incidents  in  Volsunga  Saga  are  based  on  old  tradition  or  not. 
But  a  good  parallel  for  the  last  of  the  Homeric  types  is  furnished 
by  the  Langobardic  story  of  Wodan  and  Fria  and  the  victory 
granted  by  them  to  the  Winniles  (cf  p.  115).  The  similarity 
between  this  story  and  the  incident  related  of  Zeus  and  Hera 
in  II.  XIV  153 — 353  gives  us  some  ground  for  suspecting  that 
the  heathen  poetry  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  may  have 
possessed  decided  '  Homeric '  characteristics  in  its  treatment 
of  the  gods. 

As  the  case  stands  however  we  shall  have  to  take  our 
illustrations  from  stories  of  the  Viking  Age,  A  somewhat 
curious  parallel  to  the  incident  of  Athene  and  Hector  in 
II.  XXII  226  ff  is  to  be  found  in  the  story  of  Haraldr  Hilditonn, 
as  told  in  Saxo's  History,  pp.  255,  263.  Haraldr  had  a  con- 
fidential servant  named  Bruno,  whom  he  employed  to  drive  his 
chariot  and  to  carry  messages  to  his  nephew  Ringo  (SigurSr 
Hringr).  This  man  eventually  was  drowned  ;  but  Othin  took 
his  place  and  form,  and  exerted  himself  to  sow  discord  between 
the  two  kings.  It  was  not  until  the  battle  at  Bravalla  had 
begun  that  Haraldr  had  any  suspicion  of  the  treachery  which 
had  been  played  upon  him.  Then  suddenly  recognising  the 
identity  of  his  charioteer  he  begged  him  to  grant  him  victory. 
But  Othin  threw  him  out  of  the  chariot  and  slew  him. 

The  story  of  Haraldr  Hilditonn  refers,  it  is  true,  to  times  for 
which  we  have  no  historical  records.  But  a  still  more  graphic 
story  of  intervention  on  the  part  of  divine  beings  occurs  in  con- 
nection with  a  well-known  event — the  expedition  made  against 
Norway  by  the  Jomsvikingar.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth 
century  a  number  of  Scandinavian  adventurers  had  established 


252         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS     [CHAP, 

and  fortified  a  settlement  at  Jomsborg  on  the  island  of  Wollin 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Oder.  About  the  year  994  their  leaders, 
Sigvaldi  and  Bui,  made  a  vow  to  attack  Haakon,  earl  of  Lade, 
who  then  ruled  Norway.  The  earl  was  taken  by  surprise  and 
had  not  been  able  to  muster  all  his  forces  when  he  encountered 
the  hostile  fleet  at  Hiorungavigr,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Romsdal  Fjord.  The  battle  at  first  went  against  him  ;  and, 
according  to  the  story,  he  took  advantage  of  a  respite  in  the 
fighting  to  retire  to  one  of  the  islands  and  pray  to  Th6rgert5r 
HolgabruSr.  He  was  not  able  to  obtain  her  assistance  until 
he  had  sacrificed  to  her  his  youngest  son.  When  he  resumed 
the  fight,  the  weather,  which  had  been  hot,  underwent  a  complete 
change.  A  snow-storm  came  from  the  north  and  beat  in  the 
faces  of  the  pirates,  so  that  they  were  numbed  with  the  cold  and 
could  neither  move  nor  see.  But  worse  was  to  come.  "  It  is 
said  that  HivarSr,  one  of  Bui's  companions,  was  the  first  to  see 
Th6rgert5r  in  Haakon's  fleet ;  but  soon  she  was  seen  by  many, 
both  those  who  had  second  sight  and  those  who  had  not. 
When  the  snow  abated  a  little  they  saw  also  that  arrows  were 
flying,  as  it  seemed,  from  every  one  of  the  demon's  fingers,  and 
each  arrow  brought  about  a  man's  death."  Then  they  tell 
Sigvaldi,  who  says  :  "  It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  got  to  fight 
to-day  not  against  men,  but  against  the  worst  of  devils."  Still 
he  continues  the  fight.  When  Haakon  saw  that  the  snow  was 
abating  he  cried  with  all  his  might  to  ThorgerSr  and  her  sister 
Irpa,  reminding  them  how  much  he  had  given  up  to  them  in 
sacrificing  his  son.  Then  the  storm  began  again,  and  soon 
HavartJr  saw  two  female  figures  on  Haakon's  ship,  both  acting 
as  the  one  had  done  previously.  Then  Sigvaldi  said  that  he 
would  now  take  to  flight  and  that  all  his  men  were  to  do  likewise, 
for  they  had  made  no  vow  to  fight  against  devils ^ 

Here  also  we  may  cite  a  story  connected  with  another 
historical  event,  which  took  place  about  ten  years  before  the 
battle  of  Hiorungavagr.  Eric  the  Victorious,  king  of  Sweden, 
expelled  his  nephew  Styrbiorn  from  the  kingdom  ;  and  the  latter 

1  Jomsvikinga  Saga,  cap.  44  (Fornmanna  Sogur,  XI  p.  136  ff.) ;  Flatey-iarbok, 
I  191  f.  Snorri  gives  a  different  account  of  the  battle  in  the  Heimskringla  (Olafs 
S.  Tryggv.  43  ff.) ;  but  he  was  acquainted  with  at  least  part  of  the  story  given  above. 


XII]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  253 

invaded  the  country  with  the  help  of  the  Danish  king  Harold 
Blue-tooth.  On  the  eve  of  the  battle  Eric  went  into  Othin's 
temple  and  in  order  to  obtain  victory  promised  to  give  himself 
up  dead  at  the  end  of  ten  years.  Soon  afterwards  he  saw  a  big 
man  with  a  long  hood,  who  put  a  cane  into  his  hand  and  told 
him  to  throw  it  over  Styrbiorn's  army  saying  :  "  You  all  belong 
to  Othin,"  When  he  threw  the  cane  it  seemed  to  turn  into  a 
javelin  and  brought  blindness  upon  Styrbiorn  and  all  his  host. 
On  the  same  occasion  Thor  was  seen  in  Styrbiorn's  camp^ 
Such  cases  are  by  no  means  isolated.  Olafr  Tryggvason,  who 
reigned  over  Norway  from  995  to  looo,  is  said  to  have  been 
visited  both  by  Othin  and  Thorl 

Of  dreams  perhaps  the  most  interesting  case  is  a  story  told 
of  an  Icelander  named  Glumr,  a  contemporary  of  Earl  Haakon 
of  Lade.  A  certain  Thorkell  possessed  an  estate  which  he  was 
compelled  to  sell  to  Glumr.  Before  leaving  he  went  to  Prey's 
temple,  sacrificed  an  ox  and  prayed  that  Glumr  likewise  might 
be  forced  to  give  up  the  estate.  This  actually  came  to  pass. 
But  before  he  left,  Glumr  dreamed  that  he  saw  a  great  crowd  on 
the  river  banks  coming  to  see  Frey,  who  was  seated  on  a  chair. 
In  his  dream  he  asked  who  they  were.  They  replied  that  they 
were  his  departed  relatives  and  that  they  were  praying  Frey  that 
he  (Glumr)  should  not  be  driven  from  his  estate.  But  it  was  of 
no  use  ;  Frey  answered  curtly  and  angrily,  remembering  the  ox 
which  Thorkell  had  given  him^. 

For  the  action  of  Homeric  deities  in  sending  birds  as  a  mark 
of  favour  or  omen  of  success  a  good  parallel  is  to  be  found  in 
another  incident  in  the  life  of  Earl  Haakon  of  Lade.  When 
Jutland  was  invaded  by  the  Emperor  Otto  H  in  974  Harold 
Blue-tooth  summoned  Haakon  to  his  assistance.  After  the 
campaign  the  Danish  king  adopted  Christianity  and  compelled 
Haakon  to  do  likewise.  But  the  latter  set  off  with  his  fleet  as 
soon  as  possible  and,  landing  on  the  coast  of  Ostergotland, 
proceeded  to  offer  a  great  sacrifice.     Thereupon  there  came  two 

^  Styrbiarnar  Thattr,  cap.  2  (Fornm.  Sog.,  v  p.  250). 

^  Olafs  S.  Tryggv.  A  (Heimskr.),  cap.  71;  Olafs  S.  Tryggv.  B,  cap.  213  (Fornm. 
Sog.,  II  p.  182  f.). 

■*  Vfga-Glums  Saga,  cap.  9,  26. 


254        THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS     [CHAP. 

ravens  flying  by  and  screaming  loud.  The  earl  interpreted  this 
as  a  sign  that  Othin  had  accepted  the  sacrifice  and  that  he  would 
have  a  favourable  time  for  battle^. 

The  importance  of  the  last  case  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  derived  from  a  contemporary  poem,  the  Vellekla  (cf  p.  i6), 
in  which  the  ravens  are  mentioned.  In  the  other  cases  given 
above  no  such  early  authority  is  extant,  and  our  texts  themselves 
are  separated  by  a  period  of  from  two  to  three  centuries  from  the 
events  which  they  relate.  But  there  is  no  reason  for  doubting 
that  the  stories  had  long  been  in  existence.  It  is  questionable 
indeed  whether  the  account  of  the  battle  of  Hiorungavagr  could 
have  been  invented  after  all  recollection  of  Haakon  and  his 
religious  observances  had  died  away.  The  earl's  devotion  to 
the  worship  of  ThorgertJr  HolgabruSr  is  known  from  other 
sources  ;  but  she  seems  not  to  have  been  a  generally  recognised 
member  of  the  Northern  Pantheon. 

However  that  may  be,  no  doubt  can  be  entertained  with 
regard  to  the  poem  Hdkonarmal,  which  deals  with  the  death  of 
King  Haakon  I  at  the  battle  of  Fitje  in  961  (cf  p.  15).  The 
author,  Eyvindr  Skaldaspillir,  was  himself  present  at  the  battle. 
The  poem  relates  how  Gondul  and  Skogul  were  sent  by  Othin 
to  select  a  prince  of  Yngvi's  line,  who  should  go  and  dwell  with 
him  in  Valholl.  Then,  after  a  short  account  of  the  battle,  we  are 
told  that  "  the  princes  sat  with  their  swords  drawn,  with  scarred 
shields  and  mail-coats  pierced  ;  in  no  cheerful  mood  was  the 
host  which  had  to  make  its  way  to  Valholl.  Then  said  Gondul, 
as  she  leaned  upon  her  spear :  '  Now  will  the  forces  of  the  gods 
be  increased,  since  they  have  summoned  Haakon  to  their  abodes 
with  a  great  host'  The  prince  heard  what  the  noble  Valkyries 
were  saying.  Thoughtful  was  their  mien,  as  they  sat  on  their 
steeds,  with  helmets  upon  their  heads  and  holding  their  shields 
before  them.  '  Why  hast  thou  thus  decided  the  battle,  Skogul  ? 
Surely  we  have  deserved  success  from  the  gods.'  '  We  have 
brought  it  about  that  thou  hast  won  the  day  and  that  thy  foes 
have  fled.  Now,'  said  the  mighty  Skogul,  '  we  must  ride  to  the 
green  homes  of  the  gods,  to  tell  Othin  that  a  monarch  is  coming 

'  Olafs  S.  Tryggv.  (Heimskr.),  cap.  27  f. 


XII]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  255 

to  enter  his  presence.'  "  Then  the  scene  changes  to  Valholl  ; 
and  Othin  sends  HermoSr  and  Bragi  out  to  meet  the  king  and 
bid  him  welcomed 

Such  poems  as  H^konarmdl  and  Eiriksmdl  must  be  regarded 
as  products  of  vivid  poetic  imagination.  They  are  clearly  in  the 
nature  of  conscious  fiction,  though  it  should  not  be  assumed  that 
the  pictures  of  the  gods  and  their  abode  which  they  present 
were  conceptions  altogether  unreal  to  the  poets'  audiences.  I 
suppose  that  ultimately  this  type  of  composition  is  derived  from 
visions  or  dreams,  such  as  the  story  of  Glumr  given  above. 
For,  though  the  latter  in  its  present  form  dates  from  a  period 
at  least  two  centuries  later  than  Hakonarmdl — both  referring 
to  persons  who  lived  more  or  less  about  the  same  time — it 
will  probably  be  agreed  that  the  conception  there  is  far  more 
primitive. 

Now  we  have  good  evidence  that  visions  which  took  the  form 
of  visits  to  the  home  of  the  gods  did  really  obtain  credence  in 
the  Viking  Age.  When  St  Ansgar  visited  Sweden  for  the 
second  time,  not  long  after  850,  he  found  that  the  success  of  his 
mission  was  seriously  endangered.  A  man  had  come  to  Birca 
(Biorko,  on  the  Malar),  where  the  king,  Olaf,  was  residing,  and 
stated  that  he  had  been  present  at  an  assembly  of  the  gods,  who 
had  sent  him  to  deliver  a  message  to  the  king  and  nation.  This 
was  to  the  effect  that  the  gods  had  long  been  gracious  to  the 
Swedes  and  had  preserved  their  land  in  peace  and  prosperity. 
Yet  now  the  Swedes  were  abandoning  their  accustomed  sacrifices 
and  introducing  a  strange  god.  If  they  wished  to  retain  their 
favour  the  sacrifices  must  be  resumed  on  a  larger  scale,  and  the 
new  god  must  be  refused  admittance.  "  But  if  you  desire  to 
have  more  gods,  and  we  are  not  sufficient  for  you,  we  unanimously 
enrol  in  our  body  Eric  who  was  formerly  your  king,  so  that 
he  shall  be  counted  among  the  gods."  This  story  created  a 
profound  impression  among  the  inhabitants.  "  They  founded 
a   temple    in    honour  of  the  above-mentioned   king,  who  had 

^  This  latter  part  of  the  poem  is  copied  from  Eiriksm^l  (cf.  p.  15),  in  which  Othin 
sends  out  Sigmundr  and  Sinfiotli  to  meet  Eirikr.  We  do  not  know  either  the  date  or 
the  author  of  Eiriksmil ;  but  it  would  seem  from  the  Saxon  Chronicle  that  Eirfkr  was 
still  alive  about  the  year  954. 


256        THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS     [CHAP. 

long  been  dead,  and   began  to  offer  prayers  and  sacrifices  to 
him  as  a  god^." 

The  Life  of  St  Ansgar,  from  which  this  story  is  taken,  is 
practically  a  contemporary  authority.  It  was  written  by 
St  Rembert,  one  of  Ansgar's  disciples,  who  succeeded  him  as 
Archbishop  of  Hamburg  in  865  and  died  in  888.  In  face  of 
such  evidence  we  have  no  reason  for  doubting  that  stories  such 
as  that  of  Glumr  would  readily  obtain  credence.  Indeed  it  seems 
scarcely  impossible  that  the  doings  of  ThorgerSr  HolgabruSr  at 
Hiorungavagr  may  have  been  believed  by  persons  who  were 
alive  at  the  time.  Yet  credulity  was  no  special  characteristic  of 
the  Northern  peoples.  We  learn  from  inscriptions  that  Asclepios 
was  in  the  habit  of  showing  himself  to  pilgrims  in  his  temple 
at  Epidauros.  Still  more  striking  evidence  is  furnished  by 
Herodotus'  story  (I  60)  that  Peisistratos  recovered  the  tyranny 
at  Athens  by  dressing  up  a  woman  to  personate  Athene  and 
accompanying  her  in  a  chariot  to  the  city.  Herodotus  himself 
remarks  that  this  took  place  at  a  time  when  the  Greek  race  had 
long  been  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  mankind  by  its  superior 
sagacity  and  freedom  from  silly  credulity — and  in  a  state  too 
which  was  held  to  be  intellectually  supreme  among  the  Greeks. 
Whatever  doubt  may  be  entertained  as  to  the  truth  of  the  story  it 
is  significant  enough  that  Herodotus  should  record  it,  apparently 
without  any  hesitation,  in  less  than  a  century  after  Peisistratos' 
death.  Some  four  centuries  earlier  men  may  well  have  been 
ready  to  hear  that  the  gods  took  an  active  part  in  the  battles  of 
their  fathers  or  grandfathers,  while  the  latter  themselves  may 
have  been  quite  as  ready  to  attribute  their  success  or  failure 
to  the  disguised  agency  of  the  same  powers. 

It  is  clear  at  all  events  that  the  Scandinavian  evidence  fails 
to  provide  any  justification  for  the  view  that  poems  which 
introduce  the  gods  must  date  from  times  far  removed  from  the 
events  which  they  claim  to  commemorate.     In  the  contemporary 

^  Porro,  si  etiam  plures  deos  habere  desideratis,  et  nobis  non  sufficimus,  Ericum, 
quondam  regem  uestrum,  nos  unanimes  in  collegium  nostrum  asciscimus,  ut  sit  unus 

de  numero  deorum Nam  et  templum   in  honore  supradicti  regis  dudum 

defuncti  statuerunt,  et  ipsi  tanquam  deo  uota  et  sacrificia  offerre  coeperunt.     Rem- 
bertus,  Vita  S.  Anscharii,  cap.  23. 


XIl]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  257 

Hakonarmdl  we  find  two  of  the  most  advanced  Homeric  types. 
First,  we  have  deities  participating  without  disguise  in  battle  ; 
then  a  change  of  scene  carries  us  to  the  actual  home  of  the  gods. 
The  second  scene  in  Hakonarmdl — which  is  likewise  the  scene 
of  Eiriksmal — may  be  compared  both  with  the  various  'Olympic' 
episodes  and  also  with  the  two  Nekyiai.  For,  since  Othin  is 
a  god  of  the  dead,  his  abode  corresponds  in  a  sense  both  to 
Olympos  and  the  home  of  Hades.  On  the  whole  perhaps  the 
nearest  affinities  of  the  two  Norwegian  poems  are  with  the 
second  Nekyia  (Od.  XXIV  i — 204),  which  is  commonly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  latest  portions  of  the  Odyssey. 

Lastly,  the  Scandinavian  evidence  gives  no  support  to  the 
belief  that  the  more  imaginative  types  of  divine  intervention 
necessarily  belong  to  a  later  date  than  the  others.  In  principle 
of  course  it  may  be  admitted  that  they  are  less  primitive.  But 
in  Old  Norse  literature  it  so  happens  that  they  occur  in  both 
earlier  and  more  nearly  contemporary  works.  The  explanation 
lies  doubtless  in  the  fact  that  the  theological  apparatus  of  Norse 
poetry  was  fully  developed  before  the  time  of  our  earliest 
authorities.  So  far  as  I  can  see,  there  is  no  good  reason  for 
denying  that  the  same  remark  holds  good  for  the  Homeric 
poems.  But  if  so  it  is  futile  to  use  evidence  of  this  kind  as 
a  criterion  for  determining  the  date  of  the  various  portions. 

Monsters  and  theriomorphic  demons  are  by  no  means 
unknown  in  Greek  heroic  stories,  though  in  the  poems  which 
have  come  down  to  us  they  figure  prominently  only  in  episodes 
dealing  with  past  events.  The  nearest  Homeric  analogies  to 
Beowulf's  adventures  are  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the  stories  of 
Bellerophon  and  Meleagros^  (II.  VI  178  fif. ;  IX  538  ffi).  It  may 
be  that  these  stories  and  others,  such  as  that  of  Perseus,  them- 
selves once  formed  the  main  themes  of  heroic  poems,  and  that 
the  backward  position  which  they  ultimately  came  to  occupy,  as 
compared  with  stories  of  anthropomorphic  deities,  is  due  to  the 
growth  of   poetic  art  and   humanistic  tendencies.     But  on  the 

*  The  first  stage  in  the  growth  of  such  a  story  as  this  may  be  illustrated  from  the 
message  of  the  Mysians  given  by  Herodotus,  i  36.  The  development  which  it  may 
ultimately  attain  can  be  seen  from  the  story  of  Kilhwch  and  Olwen. 


258         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS     [CHAP. 

other  hand  we  have  to  rernember  that  heroic  poetry  is  always 
liable  to  the  intrusion  of  folk-tales,  in  which  adventures  with 
monsters  form  one  of  the  favourite  themes. 

The  chief  store-house  of  folk-tales  in  the  Homeric  poems 
is  the  narrative  of  his  adventures  given  by  Odysseus  to  the 
Phaeacians  (Od.  ix — xil).  This  narrative  contains  a  consider- 
able number  of  incidents,  of  which  ten  may  be  regarded  as 
more  or  less  distinct :  (i)  the  encounter  with  the  Cicones,  (ii)  the 
visit  to  the  land  of  the  Lotus-eaters,  (iii)  the  adventure  with 
Polyphemos,  (iv)  the  two  visits  to  Aiolos,  (v)  the  disaster  in  the 
land  of  the  Laistrygones,  (vi)  the  two  visits  to  Circe,  (vii)  the 
journey  to  the  home  of  Hades,  (viii)  the  singing  of  the  Sirens, 
(ix)  the  adventure  with  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  (x)  the  slaughter 
of  the  cattle  of  Helios. 

The  first  of  these  incidents  bears  no  obvious  traces  of  de- 
rivation or  influence  from  a  folk-tale  ;  but  it  is  the  only  one 
of  the  series  of  which  this  can  be  stated  with  any  confidence. 
The  adventures  with  the  Lotus-eaters  and  the  Laistrygones 
should  perhaps  be  regarded  rather  as  travellers'  stories — founded 
possibly  on  actual  experience  of  foreign  peoples — yet  the  latter 
at  least  contains  certain  distorted  features  which  may  fairly 
bring  it  within  our  category.  As  to  the  origin  of  the  adventure 
with  Polyphemos  there  can  be  little  doubt.  It  appears  to  be 
found  with  slight  variants  in  many  different  parts  of  the 
worlds 

The  last  incident  of  the  series  is  perhaps  the  one  least  widely 
known;  but  a  parallel  may  be  cited  from  one  of  Saxo's  stories 
(p.  286  f.).  A  certain  Danish  king  named  Gormo^  was  an 
ardent  explorer.  Above  all  he  desired  to  visit  the  abode  of 
Geruthus  (GeirroSr),  which  lay  beyond  the  ocean  in  a  land  of 
perpetual  darkness.  Taking  with  him  as  guide  an  experienced 
traveller,  named  Thorkillus,  he  set  sail  with  three  ships  and 
made  his  way  beyond  Halogaland  (the  north  of  Norway). 
There,  having  lost  its  way  in  a  storm,  the  expedition  came  to  be 

^  Cf.  Macculloch,  The  Childhood  of  Fiction,  p.  279  ff. 

^  The  historical  connections  of  this  story  are  somewhat  obscure.  But  this  is 
immaterial  for  our  purpose,  as  the  part  with  which  we  are  dealing  is  clearly  derived 
from  folk-tales. 


XII]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN   THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  259 

in  want  of  food.  Eventually  they  arrived  at  an  island  which 
contained  herds  of  extremely  tame  cattle.  Against  the  advice 
of  Thorkillus  the  mariners  slaughtered  a  large  number  of  these. 
The  following  night  they  were  attacked  by  monsters,  one  of 
whom  declared  that  they  would  not  be  allowed  to  sail  away 
until  they  made  compensation  for  the  losses  they  had  inflicted 
on  the  herd  of  the  gods.  In  order  to  save  themselves  they  had 
to  give  up  one  man  from  each  ship. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  incident  bears  a  general  resemblance 
to  the  slaughtering  of  the  cattle  of  Helios,  and  we  need  scarcely 
hesitate  to  regard  both  stories  as  variant  forms  of  a  folk-tale. 
As  to  its  origin  we  are  not  altogether  without  evidence  in  the 
Northern  case.  In  Alcuin's  Vita  Willebrordi,  I  cap.  10,  it  is 
stated  that  a  certain  island  (now  Heligoland)  was  entirely  sacred 
to  a  god  named  Fosite.  So  great  was  the  sanctity  with  which 
it  was  regarded  that  no  one  ventured  to  touch  any  of  the  animals 
which  grazed  upon  the  island.  The  violation  of  the  sanctuary, 
in  this  and  other  respects,  cost  one  of  St  Willebrord's  com- 
panions his  life.  Hence  there  is  no  need  to  doubt  that  a  basis 
of  fact  underlies  the  stories  of  islands  in  which  animal  life  was 
held  sacred — ^just  as  in  holy  woods  throughout  the  north  of 
Europe.  It  is  scarcely  impossible  that  similar  island  sanctuaries 
may  once  have  been  known  in  the  Mediterranean. 

The  subsequent  course  of  the  story  has  a  certain  affinity 
with  that  of  Circe.  After  leaving  the  island  Gormo  and  his 
men  sailed  in  safety  to  the  farther  part  of  Permland,  where  they 
were  met  by  a  giant  named  Guthmundus\  the  brother  of 
Geruthus,  who  invited  them  to  his  house.  Thorkillus  strictly 
enjoined  his  companions  to  abstain  from  all  food  and  drink 
offered  them,  even  from  the  fruits  which  grew  in  the  garden,  and 
to  avoid  contact  with  members  of  the  household.  Those  who 
yielded  to  temptation,  as  a  few  eventually  did,  would  have  to 
spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  among  monsters.  There  is  no 
actual  transformation  as  in  the  story  of  Circe;  but  this  in  itself 
is  a  widely  known  incident  in  folk-tales. 

When  the  travellers  at  length  reach  the  abode  of  Geruthus 

•  Gu^mundr   of  Glsesisvellir   is   a  well-known   figure   in   the   unhistorical   parts 
of  sagas. 


26o         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN   THE   HOMERIC    POEMS     [CHAP. 

the  scene,  though  horrible  in  every  way,  seems  to  be  a  variety  of 
the  Enchanted  Castle  rather  than  a  parallel  to  the  home  of 
Hades^  We  have  seen  above  that  the  poems  Hdkonarmdl  and 
Eiriksmal  may  in  a  sense  be  compared  with  the  two  Nekyiai  ; 
for  Valholl  is  the  abode  not  only  of  the  chief  god  but  also 
of  the  spirits  of  fallen  warriors.  But  here  we  have  to  deal  with 
elaborate  conceptions  of  court  poetry  which  are  further  removed 
from  the  spirit  of  the  true  folk-tale  than  either  of  the  passages 
in  the  Odyssey'^.  A  better  parallel  to  the  first  Nekyia  is  perhaps 
to  be  found  in  another  of  Saxo's  stories  (p.  31).  Once  upon 
a  time,  when  King  Hadingus  was  feasting,  there  appeared  to  him 
a  woman  who  was  carrying  hemlocks.  She  wrapped  him  in  her 
mantle  and  took  him  with  her  underground  in  order  to  show 
him  where  the  hemlocks  grew.  On  the  way  they  passed  through 
a  dark  cloud  and  then  along  a  well-worn  path,  where  they  saw 
many  men  richly  attired.  After  viewing  the  sunny  regions 
where  the  hemlocks  grew,  they  crossed  a  rapid  river  and  then 
saw  two  armies  engaged  in  desperate  conflict.  The  woman  told 
Hadingus  that  these  were  men  who  had  been  slain  by  the  sword 
and  continually  rehearsed  the  manner  of  their  death.  They  are 
obviously  to  be  connected  with  the  emJieriar  of  Old  Norse 
poetry — the  slain  warriors  who  dwell  in  Valholl  and  spend  their 
days  in  combat — though  possibly  this  passage  represents  a  more 
primitive  form  of  the  idea  It  is  to  be  observed  that  Saxo  himself 
explicitly  interprets  the  story  as  a  visit  to  the  region  of  the  dead. 
Stories  of  this  kind  are  to  be  found  in  many  parts  of  the 
world — among  peoples  as  widely  apart  as  the  Algonquins,  the 
Zulus  and  the  Maoris^  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  to  a  large 
extent  the  first  Nekyia  belongs  to  the  same  category.  At  the 
same  time  of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  it  is  wholly  to 
be  regarded  as  a  folk-tale.  In  the  interview  with  Agamemnon 
and  his  companions  (vv.  385 — 564)  we  find  ourselves  in  much 
the  same  world  of  ideas  as  is  presented  to  us  in  Eiriksmal  and 

^  A  better  parallel  is  perhaps  furnished  by  Thorkillus'  subsequent  visit  to  the 
abode  of  Ugarthilocus  (p.  292  ff.).  The  description  of  this  place  recalls  that  of 
Nastrond  in  Voluspa  39,  Gylfaginning,  cap.  52. 

^  The  home  of  Hades  resembles  the  abode  of  Hel  rather  than  Valholl.  To  this 
also  we  have  a  visit  (by  the  god  HermotSr)  in  Gylf.  49. 

*  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture^,  i  p.  346,  \\  p.  50  ff. 


XIl]         THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  261 

Hakonarmal.  Again,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  object  of 
Odysseus'  journey  was  to  consult  the  spirit  of  Teiresias,  and 
this  is  perhaps  the  original  kernel  of  the  story.  Such  an  idea 
however  may  be  derived  from  ancient  religious  observances 
rather  than  from  a  folk-tale.  Herodotus  (V  92)  records  that 
Periandros,  tyrant  of  Corinth,  about  the  close  of  the  sixth 
century,  sent  an  embassy  to  the  oracle  of  the  dead  {veKvo- 
fiavrrjiov)  on  the  river  Acheron  in  Thesprotis,  in  order  to  consult 
the  spirit  of  his  wife  Melissa.  After  making  all  allowance  for 
antiquarian  and  etymological  speculation^  it  seems  probable 
that  this  oracle  did  influence  the  conceptions  of  the  home  of  the 
dead  current  in  Greek  poetry. 

It  would  appear  then  that  in  the  composition  of  the  first 
Nekyia  we  have  to  take  account  of  the  influence  of  at  least 
three  different  elements — court  poetry,  folk-tale  and  religious 
(necromantic)  observances.  If  we  are  right  in  supposing  that 
Aeolis  was  the  true  home  of  all  Homeric  poetry,  the  absence  of 
any  precise  geographical  indications  is  easily  accounted  for. 
During  the  centuries  which  intervened  between  the  end  of  the 
Heroic  Age  and  the  beginning  of  the  historical  period  there  is 
extremely  little  evidence,  whether  traditional  or  archaeological, 
for  communication  with  distant  lands;  and  it  is  likely  enough 
that  at  that  time  Thesprotis  was  as  unfamiliar  as  Egypt  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Aeolis.  Few  scholars  will  dispute  that  the 
geographical  indications  throughout  the  story  of  Odysseus' 
wanderings  are  both  vague  and  contradictory.  Sometimes  he 
appears  to  be  in  the  west ;  sometimes  again  he  is  following  the 
track  of  the  Argo — presumably  in  the  Black  Sea.  That  is  after 
all  the  kind  of  confusion  which  might  reasonably  be  expected 
from  poets  who  were  dealing  with  traditions  of  voyages  made 
long  before  in  regions  now  altogether  forgotten. 

The  ascription  of  supernatural  properties  to  men  or  animals 
is   not  a  very  striking  feature  in  Homeric  poetry — unless  we 

^  As  seen  (e.g.)  in  the  application  of  the  name  KuKvrbs  to  a  tributary  of  the 
Acheron.  The  presumption  is  that  this  name  was  originally  a  creation  of  poetic 
fancy,  just  as  much  as  Ylvpi(p\iyid(j)v.  The  diffusion  of  the  names  Acheron  and 
Acherusia  in  other  regions  (Italy,  the  Black  Sea,  etc.)  is  doubtless  due  to  the  influence 
of  poetry  or  tradition. 


262       THE  SUPERNATURAL  IN  THE  HOMERIC  POEMS   [CHAP.  XII 

include  under  this  head  stories  of  exaggerated  prowess.  As  an 
example  we  may  cite  II.  xix  404  ff.,  where  one  of  Achilles' 
horses  speaks  and  prophesies  his  master's  death.  Incidents 
such  as  the  flame  on  the  same  hero's  head  in  II.  XVIII  205  fif. 
and  the  changes  in  Odysseus'  appearance  (Od.  XlII  429  fif.,  etc.) 
are  attributed  to  the  direct  action  of  deities.  On  the  other  hand 
exaggeration  is  common  and  often  carried  out  systematically. 
Among  such  cases  we  must  include  the  feats  of  valour  performed 
by  some  of  the  combatants,  and  also  presumably  the  numbers 
of  the  forces  stated  in  the  catalogues,  if  we  admit  that  the  story 
of  the  siege  of  Troy  has  any  historical  foundation. 

On  the  whole  it  appears  that  those  elements  in  the  Homeric 
poems  which  may  quite  safely  be  derived  from  myth  or  folk-tale 
resemble  the  corresponding  elements  in  Teutonic  heroic  poetry 
very  closely.  We  may  perhaps  doubt  whether  the  gods  ever 
figured  so  conspicuously  in  Teutonic  poetry  as  they  do  in  the 
Iliad  and  Odyssey  ;  but  the  difference  between  the  two  cases  is 
one  of  degree  only.  In  the  use  made  of  folk-tales  the  difference 
is  very  slight.  It  remains  for  us  now  to  consider  whether  the 
remaining  elements  in  the  poems — their  main  groundwork  in 
fact — should  be  regarded  as  of  similar  origin  in  both  cases. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

MYTH    IN   THE    HOMERIC    POEMS. 

It  is  commonly  held  that  history,  myth  and  fiction  have  all 
contributed  to  the  formation  of  the  Greek  heroic  stories  ;  but 
opinions  differ  widely  as  to  the  relative  importance  to  be 
attributed  to  the  three  elements.  Among  modern  scholars 
the  general  tendency  has  been  to  assign  the  chief  weight  to 
myth.  By  many  indeed  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  War  are 
believed  to  be  as  mythical  in  origin  as  the  gods  themselves. 

One  conclusion  may  safely  be  drawn  from  the  Northern 
evidence  discussed  in  the  last  chapter :  we  must  definitely  dis- 
miss the  argument  that  the  Homeric  heroes  cannot  have  been 
men  of  flesh  and  blood  because  they  are  brought  into  contact 
with  the  gods.  No  one  will  be  so  hardy  as  to  suggest  that 
King  Haakon  or  his  namesake,  the  famous  earl  of  Lade,  were 
products  of  myth  or  poetic  imagination.  Yet  Gondul  is  as 
much  responsible  for  the  death  of  King  Haakon  as  Athene  is 
for  that  of  Hector.  There  is  certainly  this  difference  between 
the  two  cases,  that  we  have  no  historical  evidence  for  the 
existence  of  the  Homeric  heroes.  But  the  fact  that  deities 
participate  in  their  destruction  does  not  in  itself  prove  that 
they  are  themselves  products  of  myth  or  fiction. 

There  was  a  time,  not  so  very  long  ago,  when  most  of  the 
characters  of  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  were  believed  to  owe  their 
origin  to  nature-myth — personifications  of  light,  darkness  and 
so  forth.  At  the  present  time  however  it  is  only  in  some  few 
cases  that  this  view  is  generally  maintained.  Its  chief  strong- 
hold is  the  case  of  Achilles  ;  and  here  we  are  invariably  referred 
for  proof  to  the  story  of  SigurtJr.     The  two  characters  have  of 


264  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

course  a  good  deal  in  common.  Both  are  more  or  less  idealised 
types  of  youthful  strength  and  valour,  and  both  die  prematurely. 
But  it  would  be  pure  folly  to  regard  these  features  as  in  them- 
selves proofs  of  mythical  origin.  In  order  to  prove  this  it  is 
necessary  to  point  to  features  which  can  only  be  mythical,  and 
to  show  that  such  features  formed  an  original  element  in  the 
stories. 

Now  we  have  seen  (p.  140  ff.)  that  the  current  explanation 
with  regard  to  SigurSr  is  open  to  the  most  serious — in  my 
opinion  fatal — objections.  On  the  other  hand  there  certainly 
was  a  tendency  for  myth  to  grow  up  in  later  times  round  this 
hero.  As  an  instance  we  may  take  his  invulnerability,  a  feature 
which  is  peculiar  to  the  German  version  of  the  story.  Achilles 
possesses  the  same  characteristic — but  not  in  the  Iliad  or  Odyssey. 
It  is  as  much  unknown  in  the  Homeric  account  of  Achilles  as 
in  the  Norse  account  of  SigurSr.  Indeed  the  only  essentially 
mythical  feature  which  the  poems  themselves  record  in  the  case 
of  Achilles — and  it  is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  his  case — is  that 
he  is  the  son  of  a  deity\  But  divine  descent  was  claimed  also 
by  many  Teutonic  princes,  though  the  heroes  of  our  stories  are 
usually  separated  from  their  divine  ancestors  by  two  or  three 
generations-.  Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  this 
phenomenon  it  is  doubtless  to  be  connected  with  the  stories 
of  conjugal  relations  between  human  and  divine  beings  which 
we  find  both  in  Greece  and  in  northern  Europe.  This  is  a 
subject  to  which  we  shall  have  to  return  in  a  later  chapter. 
Above  all,  however,  we  have  to  take  account  of  the  influence 
of  folk-tales^  and  popular  beliefs,  which,  as  we  have  seen  from 

1  Achilles  himself  was  worshipped  as  a  deity  in  certain  localities ;  and  the  same  is 
true  of  some  other  heroes.  We  may  refer  to  the  story  of  St  Ansgar,  quoted  above 
(p.  255 f.).    With  such  cases  as  that  of  '  Zeus  Agamemnon '  we  shall  have  to  deal  later. 

2  According  to  Volsunga  Saga,  cap.  2,  Sigmundr,  the  father  of  Sigur'Sr,  had  a 
divine  mother  (cf.  p.  114). 

^  Some  resemblance  to  the  case  of  Peleus  and  Thetis  is  shown  by  a  story  in  Hrolfs 
S.  Kraka,  cap.  15,  where  an  elf-woman  bears  a  daughter  to  Helgi,  the  father  of 
Hrolfr  Kraki.  Such  incidents  are  not  uncommon  in  folk-tales.  We  may  note 
especially  those  cases  in  which  the  supernatural  bride  is  a  mermaid,  perhaps  re- 
presenting the  Swan-maiden  of  earlier  times.  Thetis  has  a  good  deal  in  common 
with  the  latter  class  of  beings. 


XIIl]  MYTH    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  265 

the  Teutonic  evidence,  may  make  itself  felt  even  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  very  recent  events. 

The  story  of  the  abduction  of  Helen  is  another  case  for 
which  many  scholars  still  claim  a  mythical  origin.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  stories  of  (e.g.)  the  abduction  of  the  sun  or  the  incon- 
tinence of  the  moon'  do  occur,  though  examples  of  this  type 
are  by  no  means  so  common  or  widespread  as  many  writers 
have  assumed ^  But  what  is  apt  to  be  overlooked  is  that  these 
stories  arise  from  a  personification  of  the  sun  or  moon,  and  that 
it  is  in  consequence  of  this  personification  that  the  heavenly 
bodies  are  believed  to  be  exposed  to  perils  and  passions  such  as 
affect  human  beings.  It  is  surely  nothing  less  than  an  inversion 
of  the  natural  order  of  things  to  suppose  that  the  numerous  class 
of  folk-tales  which  deal  with  the  abduction  of  a  girl  or  wife 
originated  in  the  type — a  comparatively  rare  type — in  which 
this  motif  is  applied  to  the  sun.  There  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  prevalence  of  such  folk-tales  is  due  to  the  in- 
numerable occurrences  of  abduction  in  real  life.  But  the  theory 
we  are  discussing  involves  not  merely  the  personification  of 
heavenly  bodies  and  natural  phenomena  but  their  complete 
anthropomorphisation^ — a  very  doubtful  process  in  the  best 
of  cases — whereas  the  story  which  it  seeks  to  explain  bears  no 
trace  even  of  derivation  from  a  folk-tale.  In  other  words  we 
are  asked  to  assume  a  most  complex  and  precarious  hypothesis 

'  Cf.  Aeneas  Sylvius,  Hist,  de  Eur.,  cap.  26,  and  the  first  Daina  in  Schleicher's 
Handb.  d.  litau.  Sprache.  Night  and  day  or  dawn  are  also  frequently  personified — 
the  last  especially  where,  as  in  Greece,  the  sun  is  regarded  as  a  male.  But  none 
of  these  lend  themselves  so  readily  as  the  sun  and  moon  to  the  development  of 
mythical  stories.  The  personification  of  light,  darkness,  etc.  in  the  abstract  seems 
to  belong  to  a  much  more  advanced  stage  of  thought. 

*  Eclipse-myths  (usually  of  a  simple  character)  are  widespread  and  fairly  common. 
A  probable  example  is  to  be  found  in  Gylfaginning,  cap.  12  (cf.  also  Tylor,  Primitive 
Culture^,  I  p.  328  ff.).  But  a  good  deal  of  scepticism  is  justifiable  in  regard  to  the 
interpretation  of  stories  which  are  supposed  to  have  originated  in  myths  of  sunrise 
and  sunset.  This  remark  applies  even  to  those  Polynesian  and  Red  Indian  stories 
which  are  commonly  regarded  as  among  the  best  examples  of  their  class. 

^  The  personification  of  the  sun  and  the  dawn  in  the  Homeric  poems  is  very 
similar  to  what  we  find  in  the  north  of  Europe,  e.g.  in  Gylfaginning,  cap.  ro  f.,  and 
the  first  four  Dainos  in  Schleicher's  Handbuch.  The  most  important  difference  is 
that  the  Dawn-goddess,  like  other  deities,  has  sexual  relations  with  mortals  (see  the 
Addenda).     But  her  true  character  is  not  for  a  moment  forgotten. 


266  MYTH   IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

in  order  to  account  for  a  story  for  which  parallels  are  to  be 
found  very  frequently  in  almost  all  stages  of  human  society. 
.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  story  of  Helen  is 
entirely  devoid  of  mythical  elements.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
a  most  instructive  example  of  the  growth  of  myth,  and  as  such 
it  furnishes  an  interesting  parallel  to  the  history  of  similar 
stories  in  the  north  of  Europe.  In  the  Iliad  Helen  possesses 
no  mythical  characteristics,  except  that  she  is  the  offspring  of 
a  divine  father.  In  the  Cypria  she  had  apparently  also  acquired 
a  divine  mother  (Nemesis).  By  the  seventh  century  we  find  her 
figuring  in  quite  a  different  story  of  abduction — a  story  which 
seems  to  have  been  treated  by  Alcman  and  Stesichoros,  as  well 
as  on  the  '  Chest  of  Cypselos.'  This  time  she  is  carried  off  by 
Theseus,  with  the  help  of  Peirithoos,  and  rescued  by  her  brothers, 
the  Dioscoroi^  Somewhat  later  we  find  a  new  version  of  the 
story  of  her  abduction  by  Paris.  Now  it  is  said  to  be  only  her 
elBcoXov  which  is  carried  off  by  Paris  ;  Helen  herself  is  taken  by 
Hermes  to  Egyptl  There  seems  to  be  little  reason  for  doubting 
that  the  etBwXov  was  a  deliberate  invention  of  Stesichoros,  though 
in  other  respects  this  version  of  the  story  may  well  have  been 
influenced  by  the  Egyptian  version,  recorded  by  Herodotus 
(II  1 12  ff).  The  latter  again  comes  in  all  probability  from  Greek 
settlers  in  Egypt,  who  connected  the  narrative  of  Helen's  sojourn 
in  Egypt,  related  in  the  Odyssey  (IV  125  ff.,  351  ff),  with  a  cult 
which  they  found  existing  in  that  country.  This  version  of  the 
story  then  should'  perhaps  be  regarded  as  a  product  of  fiction 
rather  than  myth.  The  other  story  however — that  of  Theseus, 
Peirithoos  and  the  Dioscoroi — is  doubtless  of  popular  origin. 
It  is  important  to  notice  that  both   these   pairs   of  heroes  are 

1  There  is  probably  an  allusion  to  this  story  in  II.  Ill  144,  although  a  different 
explanation  is  quoted  by  Plutarch  (Theseus,  cap.  34)  from  Istros.  But  the  verse  in 
question  was  condemned  by  some  ancient,  as  well  as  modern,  scholars.  It  is 
'inorganic'  (cf.  Od.  Ii  331)  and  due  in  all  probability  to  the  same  process  as  II. 
II  831  ff.  (cf.  p.  244,  note). 

^  This  list  is  by  no  means  exhaustive.  We  may  mention  also  the  story  of  Helen 
and  Achilles  in  the  'White  Isle'  (cf.  Pausanias  in  19.  11)  and  that  of  Ariston's  wife, 
related  by  Herodotus  (vi  61).  The  Rhodian  story  (cf.  Paus.  Ill  19.  10)  is  obviously 
due  in  part  to  the  influence  of  the  Homeric  poems ;  but  it  is  at  least  questionable 
whether  this  'EXivr)  AevSp^Tis  was  originally  identical  with  the  other  Helen. 


XIIl]  MYTH   IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  267 

connected  with  other  stories  of  abduction  \  Moreover  in  both 
cases  these  stories  have  certain  elements  in  common  with  that  of 
Persephone.  There  can  be  Httle  doubt  therefore  that  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  folk-tale.  The  introduction  of  Helen  into  the 
story  may  be  due  partly  to  her  kinship  with  the  Dioscoroi  and 
partly  to  the  influence  of  the  story  of  her  abduction  by  Paris. 

At  the  present  time  it  appears  to  be  the  more  general 
opinion  that  the  Homeric  heroes  originated  mainly  not  in 
personifications  of  natural  phenomena,  but  in  tribal  divinities 
or  personified  conceptions  of  peoples  ('  hypostasierte  Volks- 
individualitaten  ').  Now  we  have  seen  (p.  131  f)  that  in  Teutonic 
heroic  poetry  we  occasionally  meet  with  the  mythical  eponymous 
ancestors  of  families,  though  such  persons  are  referred  to  the 
past  and  not  introduced  into  the  main  action  of  the  stories. 
Similar  characters  are  to  be  found  in  the  Homeric  poems. 
Perhaps  the  best  example  occurs  in  a  speech  of  Aineias  (II.  XX 
200  fif.),  where  the  names  AdpSavo^,  Tpw?  and  'IX09  are  included 
in  the  hero's  genealogy.  The  Cadmos  of  Od.  V  333  is  probably 
to  be  regarded,  in  some  sense  or  other,  as  the  eponymous  an- 
cestor of  the  Cadmeioi,  though  he  is  not  mentioned  in  connection 
with  Thebes.  Again,  in  Od.  xvii  207  we  have  a  reference  to 
eponymous  heroes  of  places,  Ithacos  and  Neritos.  They  are 
perhaps  creatures  of  the  poet's  own  imagination,  i.e.  fictitious 
rather  than  mythical  beings  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  they  were 
modelled  upon  existing  types.  Other  examples  of  both  types 
may  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  poems^.  Yet  it  cannot  be  said 
that  they  are  common.  In  Greece,  as  in  northern  Europe,  the 
true  home  of  eponymous  ancestors  (Hellen,  Doros,  Achaios,  etc.^) 
is  to  be  found  in  post-heroic,  or  at  least  non-heroic,  literature. 

In  recent  years  however  several  scholars  have  put  forward 
the  theory  that  the  characters  who  figure  in  the  main  action  of 

^  Attention  should  be  paid  not  only  to  the  case  of  the  Leucippides  but  also  to  the 
story  of  Phormion  (Paus.  Ill  16.  3). 

^  In  11.  II  828  ff.  (if  the  name  "ASpijo-ros  is  taken  from  vi  37  ff.  or  XVI  694)  we 
have  apparently  the  case  of  an  already  existing  character  being  turned  to  account  as 
an  eponymous  hero. 

^  Alo\l8r]s  occurs  occasionally  as  a  patronymic  for  individuals.  The  *  keeper  of 
the  winds '  seems  to  have  no  connection  with  these  characters. 


268  MYTH    IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

the  Iliad  are  tribal  heroes  in  disguise.  For  a  simple  example 
of  this  theory  we  may  refer  to  the  interpretation  put  upon 
II.  V  43  f(.,  where  the  Cretan  leader  Idomeneus  is  represented 
as  slaying  a  man  named  Phaistos  (<l>ato-T09).  Now  there  was 
in  Crete  a  well-known  city  called  Phaistos  (4>ato-Td?).  According 
to  Prof  E.  Bethe  (^Neiie  Jahrbilcher,  Vll  669)  it  cannot  be  dis- 
puted that  the  man  Phaistos  is  the  '  eponym '  of  the  city  and 
that  we  have  here  the  remains  of  an  ancient  Cretan  heroic  lay. 
But  the  origin  of  the  man  is  stated  explicitly  enough  in  the 
poem  {/.c):  he  is  the  son  of  Boros  the  Maeonian  and  had  come 
from  a  place  called  Tarne.  Before  we  can  assume  that  he  was 
the  '  eponym'  of  a  Cretan  city  we  must  surely  ask  how  he  came 
to  be  represented  as  a  Maeonian  (Lydian).  Is  it  inconceivable 
that  a  name  identical  with  that  of  a  city  should  be  borne  by 
anyone  except  the  eponymous  hero  of  the  city  .'' 

This  is  not  the  only  case  of  the  kind  which  has  been  brought 
forward.  In  II.  V  706  we  hear  of  an  Aetolian  named  Trechos 
slain  by  Hector  and  in  II.  XX  455  of  a  Trojan  named  Dryops 
slain  by  Achilles.  Here  we  are  said  to  have  '  eponyms '  of 
Trachis  and  the  Dryopes.  In  England  during  the  centuries 
immediately  following  the  Heroic  Age  we  find  mention  in 
historical  documents  of  princes  or  ecclesiastics  called  Walh, 
Cumbra,  Seaxa,  Dene,  Fronca,  etc.  Are  we  to  suppose  that 
these  persons  are  the  eponymous  heroes  of  the  Welsh  or  Cymry, 
the  Saxons,  Danes  and  Franks  ?  But  national  names  of  this 
type  seem  to  have  been  just  as  frequently  used  by  the  Greeks, 
at  least  in  historical  times.  We  may  mention  Achaios  of  Eretria, 
Ion  of  Chios  and  Dorieus  the  brother  of  Leonidas.  Is  there  any 
reason  for  denying  their  use  in  earlier  times^? 

The  evidence  of  these  names  has  been  brought  forward  in 
support  of  a  far-reaching  theory — that  the  conflicts  which  we 
find  described  in  the  Iliad  are  echoes  of  tribal  struggles  which 
once  took  place  in  Greece,  and  that  the  warriors,  Trojans  as  well 
as  Greeks,  are  in  reality  mythical  heroes  in  whom  the  various 

^  In  the  Homeric  poems  it  is  in  the  case  of  minor  characters  among  the  Trojans 
and  their  allies  that  names  of  this  type  are  most  common.  In  this  case  the  use  of 
such  names  may  be  accounted  for  with  considerable  probability  under  the  head  of 
fiction  (cf.  p.  300,  note). 


I 


XIIl]  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  269 

contending  tribes  have  become  personified.  If  this  theory  is 
sound  it  will  be  obvious  that  the  resemblance  between  Greek 
and  Teutonic  heroic  poetry  must  be  merely  superficial — that 
the  two  groups  of  poems  spring  from  essentially  different  sources. 
It  will  be  well  then  to  examine  somewhat  carefully  the  evidence 
on  which  the  theory  is  based. 

The  first  argument  in  its  favour  is  derived  from  a  story 
quoted  by  Plutarch  {Theseus,  cap.  34)  from  Istros,  a  writer  of 
the  third  century,  to  the  effect  that  Alexandres  (Paris)  was 
overcome  by  Achilles  and  Patroclos  on  the  banks  of  the 
Spercheios.  In  confirmation  of  this  story  it  is  pointed  out 
that  the  warriors  with  whom  Paris  fights  in  the  Iliad  mostly 
belong  to  Thessaly,  while  his  sister  Alexandra  (Cassandra) 
was  worshipped  by  the  Locrians.  Another  argument  rests 
on  a  story  derived  from  the  Little  Iliad,  that  Andromache 
was  brought  to  Pharsalos  after  the  fall  of  Troy.  The  inference 
that  she  belonged  originally  to  this  region  is  supported  by  the 
proposed  identification  of  Thebe  Hypoplacie,  her  home  in  the 
Iliad,  with  the  Phthiotic  Thebes,  to  the  east  of  Pharsalos.  Yet 
a  further  argument  relates  to  Hector.  It  is  noted  that  he  was 
worshipped  as  a  hero  at  Thebes  in  Boeotia,  and  that  most  of 
the  persons  associated  with  him,  either  as  friends  or  foes,  are 
connected  with  Boeotia,  Thessaly  and  the  intervening  districts. 
In  Prof.  Bethe's  words  "  Hector's  tracks  lead  from  southern 
Thessaly,  through  Phocis  and  Boeotia,  to  the  Cadmean  Thebes." 
"  In  other  words  Hector,  or  rather  the  tribe  which  honoured 
Hector  as  their  hero,  migrated  by  this  road.  More  accurately, 
the  tribe  gradually,  in  how  many  centuries  none  can  tell,  moved 
in  a  south-easterly  direction,  driven  by  a  pressure  which  was  no 
doubt  exerted  by  the  Aeolic  tribe  represented  in  the  Epos  by 
AchillesV 

Now  it  is  manifest  that  the  argument  derived  from  Istros' 
story  can  have  validity  only  if  it  can  be  shown  that  there  is 
reason  for  believing  it  to  be  based  on  genuine  native  tradition, 
independent  of  the  Homeric  poems.  For  everyone  who  has 
studied  the  history  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry  knows  that  in  the 
later  forms  of  the  stories  the  scene  is  liable  to  be  changed  to 

^  Murray,  Rise  of  the  Greek  Epic,  p.  197  (from  Bethe,  N.Jahrb.,  vii  672). 


2/0  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

entirely  different  countries.  Thus  the  fight  of  He?5inn  and 
Hogni  is  located  in  the  Orkneys  in  the  Norse  version  of  their 
story,  while  in  Kudrun  Hagen  is  made  a  king  in  Ireland.  Again, 
in  the  Vitae  Duorum  Offarum  the  whole  story  of  Offa  and  his 
single  combat  is  transplanted  to  the  English  Mercia,  the  home 
of  the  hero's  descendants.  Yet  in  the  case  of  Istros'  story  the 
requisite  evidence  seems  to  be  altogether  wanting.  If  the  story 
really  comes  from  local  tradition  it  may  very  well  be  due  to 
an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  Homeric  poems.  But  the 
context,  which  mentions  Hector  as  well  as  Paris,  suggests 
rather  that  Istros  was  referring  not  to  the  story  of  the  Iliad 
at  all  but  to  an  early  adventure  of  the  two  brothers^ — presum- 
ably one  of  those  accretions  to  the  old  heroic  cycles,  for  which 
so  many  parallels  can  be  found  in  late  Teutonic  authorities  like 
Thit5reks  Saga  af  Bern. 

The  argument  relating  to  the  Locrian  cult  of  Alexandra 
(Cassandra)  need  scarcely  be  considered  at  length ;  for,  however 
ancient  this  cult  may  have  been,  it  was  always  connected  with 
the  sanctuary  of  Athene  at  Troy-.  The  cult  of  Hector  at 
Thebes  likewise  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  same 
quarter,  perhaps  in  comparatively  late  timesl  Again,  the 
identification  of  Andromache's  home  with  Thebes  in  Phthiotis  is 
admittedly  nothing  more  than  a  conjecture. 

One  argument  still  remains  for  consideration,  namely  that 
the  persons  brought  into  contact  with  Hector  come  chiefly  from 
the  north-eastern  parts  of  Greece  and  those  encountered  by 
Paris  chiefly  from  Thessaly.  Now  it  is  to  be  observed  that 
several  of  the  persons  whose  names  figure  in  Prof  Bethe's 
lists  {pp.  cit.,  p.  670  ff.)  are  not  said  to  come  from  Thessaly, 
Boeotia,  etc.  in  the  Iliad  itself  That  they  were  derived  from 
this  quarter  is  merely  an  inference  from  the  fact  that  other 
persons  belonging  to  Thessaly,  Boeotia,  etc.  bear  the  same 
names.  It  cannot  for  a  moment  be  suspected  that  in  v.  705, 
XV.  547  ff.  the  poets  themselves  were  thinking  of  Orestes  the 
son  of  Agamemnon  or  of  Melanippos  the  famous  Theban  hero. 

1  Cf.  Crusius,  S.-B.  d.  k.  bayer.  Akad.,  1905,  p.  774  f. 

2  Cf.  Bruckner,  Troja  und  Ilion,  p.  557  ff. 

3  Cf.  Crusius,  op.  cit.,  p.  761  ff. 


XIII]  MYTH   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  2/1 

But  surely  nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  the  proposition 
that  persons  who  bear  the  same  name  must  necessarily  be 
identical  in  origin.  In  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  we  know  from 
historical  sources  of  five  kings  named  Theodric,  all  of  whom 
were  living  within  half  a  century  of  one  another.  Have  we 
any  reason  for  supposing  that  the  ancient  Greeks  were  more 
careful  to  avoid  the  use  of  names  which  had  already  been 
appropriated?^ 

Again,  the  lists  given  by  Prof.  Bethe  contain  merely  a 
selection  of  the  warriors  encountered  by  Paris  and  Hector. 
The  former  fights  in  the  Iliad  not  only  with  the  Thessalian 
heroes  Machaon,  Eurypylos  and  Menesthios,  but  also  with 
Menelaos  from  Sparta,  Diomedes  from  Argos  and  Euchenor 
from  Corinth.  Hector's  antagonists  include,  among  others,  Aias 
from  Salamis,  Stichios  from  Athens,  Periphetes  from  Mycenae, 
Lycophron  from  Cythera  and  Amphimachos  from  Elis.  On  the 
other  hand  Melanippos  is  merely  one,  and  by  no  means  the 
most  conspicuous,  of  the  same  hero's  supporters.  Considering 
the  evidence  as  a  whole  therefore  I  fail  to  see  that  this  argument 
is  worth  any  more  than  the  others. 

It  appears  then  that  the  evidence  adduced  in  favour  of  the 
theory  which  we  are  discussing  is  open  to  serious  objection  at 
every  point^.  But,  leaving  questions  of  detail,  we  have  yet  to 
notice  that  the  theory  as  a  whole  consists  of  two  main  proposi- 
tions. The  first  of  these  is  that  the  warriors  of  the  Iliad  are 
really  '  tribal  heroes,'  i.e.  in  some  sense  or  other  personifications 
of  tribes.  In  other  words  the  contests  described  in  the  poem  were 
originally  conflicts  of  tribes  and  not  of  individuals.  The  second 
proposition  is  that  these  conflicts  must  have  taken  place  between 
neighbouring    tribes.      It    will    be    seen    that    this    proposition 

^  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  name  Melanippos  is  borne  by  three  Trojans  and  one 
Achaean  in  the  Iliad.  Nothing  is  stated  regarding  the  home  of  the  Achaean. 
The  name  Orestes  is  borne  by  one  Trojan  and  one  Achaean,  besides  the  son  of 
Agamemnon. 

*  I  have  dealt  with  only  one  of  the  groups  of  names  treated  by  Prof.  Bethe ;  but 
it  is  the  one  which  he  has  discussed  most  fully.  A  second  (Laconian)  group  is  treated 
by  him  on  p.  672  f.  On  this  it  will  be  sufficient  here  to  refer  to  Crusius,  op.  cit., 
p.  771  fif.,  where  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  chief  argument  rests  apparently  on  a 
mistranslation. 


272  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

depends  very  largely  upon  the  first.  If  the  conflicts  of  the 
Iliad  really  took  place,  as  the  poem  states,  between  individual 
warriors  or  bands  of  soldiers,  there  is  no  occasion  for  supposing 
that  the  combatants  were  necessarily  neighbours.  As  far  back 
as  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  Egyptian  monuments 
testify,  as  we  have  seen,  to  enterprises  far  more  distant  than 
the  expedition  against  Troy. 

Now  the  first  proposition  is  of  course  nothing  new  in  itself. 
On  the  contrary.  Prof  Bethe's  theory  is  an  outgrowth  from  a 
view  which  has  been  long  and  widely  current — that  the  conflicts 
recorded  in  the  Iliad  are  a  reflection  of  the  Aeolic  settlement  of 
the  Asiatic  coast.  His  purpose  has  been  to  show  that  only  a 
comparatively  small  portion  of  the  story  comes  from  this  source^, 
and  that  the  bulk  is  derived  from  reminiscences  of  earlier  tribal 
struggles  in  Greece,  which  have  become  embedded  in  the  story 
of  Troy.  The  two  theories  differ  very  greatly  in  the  explanations 
which  they  give  of  the  origin  of  various  incidents  and  characters. 
But  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  the  principle  of  interpretation 
is  the  same  in  both  cases. 

No  one  will  deny  that  the  personification  of  tribes  and 
nationalities  is  to  be  found  in  both  the  poetry  and  the  prose 
literature  of  many  peoples.  In  certain  passages  of  the  Old 
Testament  this  principle  of  interpretation  has  been  recognised 
from  ancient  times.  But  the  authorities  in  which  these  passages 
occur  cannot  be  described  as  heroic  poems.  Again  Greek 
literature  itself  also  yields  plenty  of  obvious  examples,  such  as 
the  stories  of  Hellen  and  his  sons  and  Danaos,  several  of  which 
can  be  traced  back  to  quite  early  poems.  But  these  poems 
appear  to  have  been  of  the  Hesiodic,  and  not  of  the  Homeric 
school.  If  we  turn  to  the  Teutonic  peoples,  evidence  for  such 
personification  is  abundant,  and  some  of  it  belongs  to  our  very 
earliest  records.  But,  except  in  genealogical  references  such  as 
we  have  dealt  with  above  (p.  267),  examples  are  not  to  be  found 
in  heroic  poetry.  The  idea  that  the  characters  who  are  brought 
before  us  in  the  poems — let  us  say  Beowulf  or  SigurSr  or  Witege 
— are  themselves  personifications  of  tribes  is  one  which  probably 
no  scholar  would  entertain. 

1  Cf.  Neuejahrb.,  vn  662—9;  xin  2  ff. 


XIII]  MYTH   IN   THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  273 

Now  in  the  Homeric  poems,  as  we  have  them,  just  as  much 
as  in  Teutonic  heroic  poetry,  the  interest  of  the  poets  lies  in  the 
fortunes  of  individual  heroes,  not  in  those  of  the  communities  to 
which  they  belong.  Even  in  those  Teutonic  stories  which  have 
the  least  claim  to  be  regarded  as  historical  there  is  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  such  was  the  case  from  the  very  beginning.  On 
the  other  hand  the  current  hypothesis  with  regard  to  the  origin 
of  the  Greek  heroic  stories  postulates  what  can  only  be  described 
as  a  complete  revolution  in  the  interests  of  the  poets  and  their 
audiences.  This  however  is  a  postulate  which  ought  not  to  be 
accepted,  unless  decisive  evidence  is  forthcoming  in  its  favour. 

In  the  first  place  it  must  be  observed  that  the  existence  of  a 
poem  or  story  which  deals  with  reminiscences  of  tribal  conflicts 
necessarily  presupposes  an  absorbing  interest  in  tribal  history. 
It  will  probably  be  admitted  by  everyone  that  this  interest  can 
hardly  have  been  of  an  academic  character ;  indeed,  we  may 
assume,  I  think,  that  it  must  be  inspired  by  patriotic  motives. 
If  so,  the  foremost  place  will  naturally  be  taken  by  that  tribe  or 
community  with  which  the  story  originated.  Now  it  is  generally 
agreed  that  the  Homeric  poems  contain  both  Aeolic  and  Ionic 
elements.  Further,  though  opinions  differ  widely  as  to  the 
relative  importance  of  the  two,  there  is  a  practical  unanimity 
in  believing  that  the  Aeolic  element  is  the  earlier  one.  The 
tribal  interest  then,  at  least  in  the  earlier  elements  in  the  poems, 
should  be  essentially  Aeolic.  For  '  Aeolic '  we  may  practically 
say  Thessalian  (using  the  term  of  course  in  a  geographical 
sense);  for  the  Aeolic  settlements,  mainly  at  least, had  proceeded 
from  Thessaly.  But  Achilles,  the  chief  hero  of  the  Iliad,  himself 
belongs  to  Thessaly  ;  and  so  all  is  well.  Further,  many  scholars 
hold  that  the  later  or  Ionic  elements  in  the  poem  are  marked  by 
the  introduction  of  Nestor.  There  was,  apparently,  a  tradition 
current  in  Colophon  that  the  inhabitants  of  that  city  had 
originally  come  from  Pylos.  Nestor  therefore  may  be  regarded 
as  typifying  the  later  or  Ionic  interests  of  the  Iliad,  just  as 
Achilles  typifies  its  earlier  or  Aeolic  interests.  This  opinion 
however  is  by  no  means  so  widely  entertained  as  the  other. 

So  much  for  the   Iliad  ;    now  let  us  turn  to  the   Odyssey. 
Here  we  are  confronted  with  a  serious  difficulty.     Odysseus  is 


274  MYTH    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

at  least  as  much  the  hero  of  the  Odyssey  as  Achilles  is  of  the 
Iliad.  But  Odysseus  belongs  to  the  Ionian  Isles  ;  and  there  is 
no  trace  of  either  an  Aeolic  or  an  Ionic  population  in  these 
islands.  It  is  not  surprising  then  that  the  Odyssey  is  put  aside 
by  the  advocates  of  the  theory  which  we  are  discussing.  The 
tendency  is  to  regard  it  as  a  later  work — originating  perhaps  at 
a  time  when  tribal  interests  had  become  forgotten.  We  must 
confine  our  attention  therefore  to  the  Iliad. 

As  applied  to  the  Iliad  the  theory  was  long  ago  seen  to  be 
open  to  one  serious  objection.  Achilles  is  the  only  one  of  the 
chief  Achaean  leaders  who  can  be  referred  to  Thessaly.  His 
nearest  neighbour  is  the  Locrian  Aias  ;  but  the  Locrians,  in 
spite  of  their  connection  with  Troy,  cannot  be  regarded  as  an 
Aeolic  people.  All  the  other  Achaean  leaders  who  may  be 
termed  '  heroes  of  the  first  rank '  belong  to  the  southern  and 
western  parts  of  Greece.  Their  positions  geographically  cannot 
be  reconciled  with  the  theory  of  Aeolic  tribal  wars.  In  order  to 
obviate  this  difficulty  various  suggestions  have  been  put  forward. 
On  the  one  hand  we  have  Prof  Bethe's  hypothesis  which  brings 
the  Trojan  leaders,  Hector  and  Paris,  to  the  north-eastern  parts 
of  Greece.  Upon  this  enough  has  been  said  above.  On  the 
other  hand  there  is  an  older  and  still  very  popular  hypothesis, 
according  to  which  some  of  the  southern  leaders,  Agamemnon 
in  particular,  originally  belonged  to  the  northern  parts  of  the 
country.     It  is  to  this  that  we  must  now  turn  our  attention. 

In  the  Iliad  Mycenae  is  represented  as  being  the  home 
of  Agamemnon.  But  it  has  been  observed  that  this  place 
is  comparatively  seldom  mentioned,  and  that  sometimes 
Agamemnon  is  said  to  rule  over  '  Argos.'  Unfortunately  there 
is  a  considerable  amount  of  ambiguity  in  the  use  of  the  latter 
name.  Occasionally  it  denotes  the  well-known  city  in  Argolis  ; 
but  more  often  it  is  clearly  used  in  a  much  wider  sense,  for  the 
Peloponnesos  or  the  whole  of  Greece.  Once  however  (ll  68 1) 
we  find  the  expression  to  HeXaajcKov  "Apyo'i  as  a  name  for 
the  home  of  Achilles.  In  ancient  times  the  meaning  of  this 
expression  was  not  known.  Some  authorities  believed  it  to  be 
the  name  of  a  city,  while  others  understood  it  as  a  designation 
for  the  plain  of  Thessaly.     Many  modern  scholars  have  adopted 


XIII]  MYTH   IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  2/5 

the  latter  interpretation.  But  further,  they  hold  that  this  was 
the  original  Argos,  and  that  the  application  of  that  name  to  the 
Peloponnesos  or  any  part  of  it  is  due  to  a  misunderstanding  on 
the  part  of  later  (Ionic)  poets,  by  whose  time  the  northern  Argos 
had  been  forgotten. 

In  favour  of  this  view  Prof  Cauer^  brings  forward  the 
following  arguments.  "  If  Agamemnon,  as  well  as  Achilles, 
belongs  to  the  oldest  elements  in  the  story,  he  also  must  come 
from  a  land  in  which  Aeolic  was  spoken  ;  and  indeed  not  Aeolic 
in  the  extended  sense  which  the  ancients  gave  the  term — where 
the  name  includes  Elean  and  Arcadian — but  Lesbian-Aeolic. 
This  was,  as  inscriptions  show,  the  language  of  the  original 
inhabitants  of  Thessaly."  Again  "  Agamemnon  started  with 
his  fleet  from  Aulis....He  was  associated  with  Achilles  in  the 
story  from  the  beginning.  His  Argeioi  are  the  companions  of 
the  Achaeans  led  by  Achilles.  The  two  tribal  names  are  used 
for  one  another  indifferently,  and  either  of  them  can  be  employed 
as  a  designation  for  the  forces  which  fought  at  Troy.  Conse- 
quently the  Argeioi  and  the  Achaeans  must  have  been 
neighbours."  Further,  it  is  urged  by  Prof.  Cauer  that  the 
epithet  iTnro^orov  as  applied  to  the  Peloponnesian  Argos  is 
inappropriate.  This  state  possessed  no  cavalry  in  the  fifth 
century,  and  none  of  consequence  at  any  time.  On  the  other 
hand  it  is  a  very  suitable  epithet  for  the  plain  of  the  Peneios  ; 
Thessalian  cavalry  were  famous.  Lastly,  it  is  argued  that  the 
expression  Kad'  (dv)  'KWd8a  koI  jxeaov  "Apyo<i,  which  occurs 
four  times  in  the  Odyssey,  must  originally  have  denoted  two 
neighbouring  districts,  though  in  the  passages  in  question  it  is 
used  in  a  very  wide  sense — perhaps  for  all  Greece. 

The  last  argument  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  any  decisive 
bearing  upon  the  question  under  discussion.  If  we  admit,  as  I 
think  we  must,  that  Homeric  poetry  is  essentially  Aeolic  and 
that  Aeolis  was  settled  mainly  from  Thessaly,  it  is  only  natural 
that  the  poems  should  preserve  traces  of  traditional  Thessalian 
phraseology,  just  as  they  preserve  poetic  conceptions  which 
must  have  originated  in  the  same  country.  But,  though  we 
grant  that  the  phrases  in  question  may  possibly  have  been  used 

'  Grundfragen  der  Homerkritik'^,  p.  223  fF. 


276  MYTH   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

originally  of  the  Thessalian  Argos  mentioned  in  II  681,  we  are 
not  bound  thereby  to  conclude  that  this  was  the  only  Argos 
known  to  the  earliest  poems  on  the  siege  of  Troy.  Again,  it  is 
scarcely  inconceivable  that  the  traditional  epithet  linro^oTov 
may  have  been  transferred  from  one  Argos  to  the  other,  though 
on  the  other  hand  there  seems  to  be  good  reason  for  doubting 
whether  the  application  of  this  term  to  the  Peloponnesian  Argos 
is  as  much  out  of  place  as  has  been  alleged  ^  Still  less  cogent 
is  the  argument  relating  to  Aulis.  For  the  assembling  of  such  a 
fleet  as  the  story  describes  the  choice  of  a  convenient  central 
position  in  sheltered  waters  would  be  suggested  by  the  most 
elementary  notions  of  strategy. 

All  these  however  are  comparatively  minor  considerations. 
I  doubt  if  they  would  have  been  seriously  brought  forward 
except  as  reinforcements  to  the  main  contention — viz.  that 
Agamemnon,  like  Achilles,  must  have  come  from  an  Aeolic 
district,  if  he  belongs  to  the  oldest  elements  in  the  story.  It  is 
surprising  to  see  how  this  principle  appears  to  have  commanded 
the  assent  of  Homeric  scholars.  To  anyone  who  has  made  a 
study  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry  such  an  argument  seems  nothing 
less  than  absurd.  Out  of  132  personal  names  which  occur  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poems  only  three  or  four,  so  far  as  we 
know,  belong  to  persons  of  English  nationality  (cf  p.  32  ff.). 
Beowulf  is  concerned  almost  exclusively  with  the  doings  of 
princes  of  the  Danes,  Gotar  and  Swedes.  In  Waldhere,  another 
English  poem,  the  characters  are  Burgundians  and  (perhaps) 
Franks ;  in  the  German  Hildebrandslied  they  are  apparently 
Goths.  The  Norse  poems  of  the  Older  Edda  are  occupied 
chiefly  with  the  adventures  of  Huns,  Burgundians  and  Goths. 
What  need  then  is  there  for  supposing  that  Agamemnon  must 
have  belonged  to  the  same  branch  of  the  Greek  race  as  Achilles  ? 
And  what  need  is  there  for  supposing  that  an  Aeolic  poem  must 
contain  any  Aeolic  characters  at  all  ?  In  the  Odyssey  it  is  not 
the  case.  In  the  Iliad,  as  we  have  it,  only  a  small  proportion 
of  the  characters  at  most  can  be  regarded  as  Aeolic^. 

1  Cf.  Crusius,  S.-B.  der  k.  layer.  Akad.,  1905,  p.  755  ff- 

2  It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  I  am  using  the  term  '  Aeolic '  in  the  modern 
(linguistic)  sense.     I  am  under  the  impression  that  Prof.  Cauer  uses  the  term  in  the 


XIII]  MYTH   IN    THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  277 

The  reason  why  Agamemnon  must  belong  to  an  Aeolic 
district  is  clearly  to  be  found  in  the  assumption  that  both  he  and 
Achilles  were  originally  not  individuals  but  personifications  of 
tribes.  Starting  from  this  assumption  we  become  involved  in  a 
series  of  hypotheses  each  of  which  is  dependent  upon  the  pre- 
ceding one.  i.  The  sources  of  the  Iliad  were  concerned  only, 
or  at  least  chiefly,  with  the  fortunes  of  tribes  (though  in  point  of 
fact  the  Iliad,  as  it  stands,  is  concerned  only  with  the  fortunes  of 
individuals),  ii.  These  tribes  belonged  to  adjacent  districts 
(though  in  fact  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad  are  represented  as  coming 
from  nearly  all  parts  of  Greece),  iii.  Since  Achilles  belongs  to 
an  Aeolic  district,  Agamemnon  and  the  Argos  over  which  he 
rules  must  be  located  in  the  same  quarter.  But  the  third 
hypothesis  is  by  no  means  the  only  one  which  is  dependent 
upon  the  second.  Menelaos  must  have  been  transferred  from 
the  north,  i.e.  from  Thessaly,  with  his  brother.  Again,  Pylos 
lies  far  away  from  any  Aeolic  district.  Here  we  have  a  choice 
between  two  hypotheses.  Some  hold  that  Nestor,  like 
Agamemnon,  belonged  originally  to  Thessaly  (the  district  of 
the  river  Enipeus) ;  others  that  he  is  a  late  and  Ionic  addition 

same  sense.  The  only  difference,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  between  his  terminology  and 
mine  is  that — in  accordance,  I  think,  with  general  usage — I  would  include  Boeotian 
as  well  as  Thessalian  and  Lesbian- Aeolic  in  this  category.  Some  ancient  writers  of 
course  use  the  terms  A^\e?s  and  AloXis  in  a  totally  different  sense.  Thus  Thucydides 
(ill  102)  applies  the  name  Alo\ls  to  the  district  about  Pleuron  and  Calydon,  and 
again  (iv  42)  he  speaks  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Corinth  as  AloXijs.  There  may 
be  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  the  use  of  these  names  in  such  cases  is 
due  to  the  influence  of  genealogies — in  the  former  case  through  Aethlios  and 
Endymion,  in  the  latter  through  Sisyphos — or  whether  the  genealogies  themselves  are 
due  to  a  current  use  of  the  names  AloXds,  AZoXh,  etc.  The  form  AloXld-qs  in  II.  vi  154, 
Od.  XI  237  rather  suggests  that  these  names  may  have  belonged  to  a  family  (or 
possibly  a  clan)  before  they  came  to  be  applied  to  a  people  ;  but  into  this  question 
we  need  not  enter.  The  term  'Aeolic'  (in  its  linguistic  sense)  V)elongs  properly  to 
the  Asiatic  Aeolis,  and  this  name  itself  is  derived  in  all  probability  from  the  Thessalian 
Aeolis  (cf.  Herod,  vii  176),  the  fatherland  of  the  Asiatic  Aeolians.  There  may 
possibly  have  been  some  connection  between  the  reigning  families  of  the  Thessalian 
Aeolis  and  those  at  Calydon,  Corinth  and  elsewhere  which  claimed  descent  from 
Aiolos ;  but  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  an  Aeolic  dialect  (in  the  modern 
sense)  was  ever  spoken  at  either  Calydon  or  Corinth.  It  may  be  added  that  nothing 
but  confusion  of  thought  can  arise  from  introducing  into  this  discussion  the  terminology 
of  writers  of  the  Roman  age  (cf.  especially  Strabo  viii  i.  2),  who  apply  the  name 
'  Aeolic '  to  every  dialect  which  is  not  Attic,  Ionic  or  Doric. 


278  MYTH   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

to  the  story.  With  Diomedes  the  case  is  somewhat  similar. 
He  cannot  have  ruled  over  Argos  even  in  the  second  stage  of 
the  story ;  for  then,  before  Mycenae  was  introduced,  Argos 
belonged  to  Agamemnon.  Either  then  he  has  been  transferred 
from  Aetolia,  the  home  of  his  ancestors  ;  or  he  is  a  late  addition, 
due  to  Ionic  poets.  Again,  Idomeneus'  case  is  due  to  'attraction'; 
originally  he  belonged  to  quite  a  different  cycle  of  story,  like 
Tlepolemos.  Aias,  the  son  of  Telamon,  is  clearly  a  '  doublet ' 
of  the  Locrian  Aias  ;  and  so  forth.  By  this  process  we  are 
enabled  to  dispose  satisfactorily  of  all  the  southern  Greek 
heroes. 

It  will  be  seen  that  according  to  some  scholars  only  a  few 
of  the  leading  heroes  belonged  to  the  original  form  of  the 
story,  and  that  their  number  has  grown  by  gradual  accretions. 
According  to  others  the  majority  were  there  from  the  beginning; 
but  they  belonged  originally  to  the  northern  parts  of  Greece, 
more  especially  the  Aeolic  districts.  With  reference  to  this 
latter  view  it  may  be  observed  that  the  Aeolic  districts  are  by 
no  means  unrepresented  in  the  Iliad  as  we  have  it.  On  the 
contrary  we  find  a  considerable  number  of  leaders  both  from 
Thessaly  and  Boeotia  ;  but  they  are  all  what  we  may  term 
'  heroes  of  the  second  rank,'  Are  we  to  suppose  that  these 
are  '  Ionic '  substitutions  for  the  original  heroes,  when  the  latter 
were  transferred  to  the  southern  parts  of  Greece  ? 

But  we  have  yet  to  consider  a  more  important  question  than 
this.  In  the  Iliad  itself  only  two  of  the  leading  heroes,  namely 
Achilles  and  the  Locrian  Aias,  are  represented  as  coming  from 
the  northern  parts  of  Greece.  But  the  Locrians  cannot  be 
regarded  as  an  Aeolic  people.  Achilles  then  is  the  only  leading 
hero  whose  Aeolic  nationality  rests  on  any  solid  evidence,  and 
it  is,  as  we  have  seen,  chiefly  owing  to  their  association  with 
him  that  the  same  nationality  is  claimed  by  hypothesis  for 
Agamemnon  and  the  rest.  But  before  we  bring  our  discussion 
to  a  close  it  will  be  well  to  ask  whether  Achilles'  nationality 
really  is  established  beyond  question  by  the  evidence. 

It  has  been  mentioned  above  that  '  the  Pelasgian  Argos  '  is 
said  to  be  the  home  of  Achilles,  though  unfortunately  neither 
ancient  nor  modern  scholars  have  been  able  to  determine  with 


XIII]  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  279 

certainty  what  is  meant  by  that  name.  Of  the  other  places 
recorded  in  the  same  context  (II.  II  681  flf.^) — viz.  Alos,  Alope, 
Trechis,  Phthia  and  Hellas — all  except  the  third  are  involved 
in  somewhat  similar  obscurity.  Phthia — whether  it  be  a  city  or 
a  district — was  generally  located  between  Mt  Othrys  and  the 
Malian  Gulf.  Hellas  was  believed  to  be  in  the  same  neighbour- 
hood, if  not  actually  identical  with  Phthia ;  some  placed  it  on 
the  north  side  of  Othrys,  a  short  distance  avvay.  The  names 
"AXo?  and  'AXottt;  were  borne  in  historical  times  by  places  in 
Locris,  and  also  by  other  places  in  Phthiotis,  on  the  Pagasean 
Gulf  and  the  Malian  Gulf  respectively.  Opinion  was  divided 
as  to  which  of  these  were  the  places  mentioned  in  the  Iliad. 
Trechis  (Trachis)  lay  on  the  south  of  the  Spercheios. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that,  except  the  indefinite  Hellas 
and  Phthia,  all  these  places,  including  '  the  Pelasgian  Argos,'  are 
mentioned  only  in  the  Catalogue  of  Ships,  a  section  of  the  poem 
which  is  commonly  regarded  with  very  little  respect.  Indeed 
the  same  scholars  who  lay  so  much  stress  upon  the  Pelasgian 
Argos  as  the  home  of  Achilles  have  no  hesitation  about  rejecting 
the  evidence  of  the  Catalogue  as  to  the  homes  of  Agamemnon, 
Menelaos,  Nestor,  Diomedes  and  others.  Yet  the  Thessalian 
section  of  the  Catalogue  is  admittedly  far  more  difficult  to 
understand  than  any  other.  It  is  scarcely  credible  that  the  poet 
responsible  for  it  can  have  been  personally  acquainted  with  the 
places  he  was  enumerating.  Now  in  other  parts  of  the  poem 
Achilles  and  his  followers  are  associated  with  the  Spercheios  or 
Ellada;  from  XVI  173  ff.,  XXIII  144  ff.  it  is  quite  clear  that  his 
home  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
that  river.  According  to  IX  484  his  vassal  Phoinix  rules  over 
the  Dolopes,  a  people  who,  at  least  in  historical  times,  inhabited 
the  mountainous  country  to  the  north-west^  These  indications, 
it  will    be  seen,  agree   perfectly  well  with    the  only  place   in 

1  vvv  av  TOi)s,  SercToi  rd  neXaffyt-Kdv  "Apyos  ivaiov, 

o'i  t'  "AXov  o'l  T  '  KXbirrtv  o'i  re  Tprfxjiv    iv4fiovTO, 
o'i  T    elxov  ^dl7)v  7)3'  'EXXdSa  KaWiy^vaiKa,  k.t.\. 

In  V.  681  Zenodotos  read  : 

ot  5'  'Apyos  T   elxov  to  TleKacyi-Kov ,  o^dap  apo>jpr]s. 

^  This  passage  seems  to  indicate  that  the  poet  included  the  basin  of  the  Spercheios 
in  Phthia. 


280  MYTH    IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

the  Catalogue  which  can  be  identified  with  certainty,  namely 
Trechis.  On  the  whole  also  they  favour  the  view  that 
'  Alope '  is  the  Phthiotic  Alope.  Achilles'  country  then  is  the 
basin  of  the  Spercheios,  together  probably  with  the  coast  lands 
on  the  Malian  Gulf  between  the  mountains  of  Oite  and  Othrys. 
It  may  have  included  the  northern  slopes  of  the  latter,  in  the 
territory  of  the  Dolopes  ;  but  neither  the  evidence  of  the 
Catalogue  itself  nor  references  in  other  parts  of  the  Iliad  give 
us  any  warrant  for  supposing  that  it  extended  into  the  plain  of 
Larissa\ 

Now  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  an  Aeolic  dialect 
was  ever  spoken  either  in  the  basin  of  the  Spercheios  or  in  the 
districts  bordering  on  the  coasts  of  the  Malian  Gulf.  A  form 
(Mcr^^aeio?)  which  may  be  an  Aeolic  patronymic  occurs  in  an 
inscription  from  Melitaia- ;  but  the  inscription  in  other  respects 
is  definitely  non- Aeolic,  although  Melitaia  lies  to  the  north  of 
Othrys.  A  similar  form  (Ku^ioTeta)  occurs  in  an  inscription 
found  near  Pteleon^  which  is  too  short  for  us  to  determine  its 
character  ;  but  Pteleon  lies  in  the  extreme  east  of  Phthiotis, 
outside  the  Malian  Gulf,  and  according  to  the  Catalogue  belonged 
to  Protesilaos.  The  only  inscription  of  definitely  Aeolic  (Thes- 
salian)  character  as  yet  found  in  Phthiotis  comes  from  near 
Eretria,  just  inside  the  boundary.  This  place  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  Catalogue,  or  elsewhere  in  the  Iliad  ;  but  Strabo  (ix  5.  10) 
conjectured  that  it  belonged  to  Achilles'  territories.  If  we  are 
to  follow  the  indications  given  by  the  Catalogue  the  question 
would  seem  to   lie  between  the  territories  of   Protesilaos  and 

^  So  far  as  I  can  see,  the  identification  of  '  the  Pelasgian  Argos '  with  the  plain 
of  Larissa  rests  merely  on  a  conjecture,  of  the  truth  of  which  even  Strabo  himself 
{IX  5.  5)  was  not  confident.  It  may  very  well  have  been  suggested  by  the  name 
(Pelasgiotis)  borne  by  this  district  in  later  times.  The  oracle  quoted  by  Prof.  Meyer 
(Forsck.,  p.  30,  note  i)  proves  nothing,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  name  was 
used  in  historical  times.  On  the  other  hand  the  fact  that  the  citadel  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  Argos  was  called  Adptcra  (cf.  Pausanias  n  24.  i)  does  suggest  a  connection 
between  this  name  and  'Apyos.  But  if  so,  it  is  more  natural  to  think  of  Larissa 
Cremaste,  which  according  to  Strabo  (ix  5.  £3,  19)  was  also  called  Pelasgia.  This 
place  is  much  nearer  to  the  Spercheios  than  the  northern  Larissa,  and  in  spite  of 
Strabo  (ix  5.  14)  may  quite  possibly  have  been  included  within  the  same  territory. 

2  Cauer,  Delectus^,  No.  388. 

*  ib..  No.  390. 


I 


XIIl]  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  28 1 

those  of  Eurypylos  ;  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Achilles' 
country  was  believed  to  extend  so  far.  It  is  most  surprising 
therefore  to  find  Prof.  Cauer^  concluding  from  such  evidence  as 
this  that  "  we  are  justified  in  claiming  the  valley  of  the 
Spercheios  also  as  an  Aeolic  district  and  Achilles  as  a  hero 
of  Aeolic  nationality." 

For  the  language  of  Achilles'  country  itself  we  are  by  no 
means  without  evidence.  Fairly  long  inscriptions  have  been 
found  at  Hypate  in  the  valley  of  the  Spercheios  and  at  Lamia, 
to  the  north  of  the  Malian  Gulf — to  which  may  be  added  an 
inscription,  apparently  of  the  Oitaioi,  at  Drymaia  in  Phocis. 
All  these  show  the  form  of  language  usually  known  as  '  north- 
west Greek,'  and  the  same  is  true  of  other  inscriptions  found 
in  the  north  and  east  of  Phthiotis.  Although  they  are  all  late, 
there  is  no  valid  reason  for  doubting  that  this  language  is 
indigenous^  Only  two  inscriptions^  so  far  as  I  know,  contain 
references  to  Aetolian  magistrates.  The  dialect  is  almost 
identical  not  only  with  that  of  the  Aetolian  inscriptions,  but  also 
with  those  of  the  Locrians  and  Phocians,  the  former  of  which  is 
well  known  from  much  earlier  times.  Greek  communities  as 
a  general  rule  were  slow  to  change  their  language,  and  the 
influence  of  the  Aetolian  League  was  scarcely  of  such  a 
character  as  to  favour  the  permanent  extension  of  its  dialecf. 

^   Grundfragen  der  Homerkritik^,  p.  214. 

2  By  this  of  course  I  do  not  mean  that  the  inscriptions  give  an  absolutely  faithful 
reproduction  of  the  local  pronunciation,  any  more  than  do  those  of  the  Aetolians. 
From  the  fourth  century  onwards  '  phonetic  spelling'  appears  to  have  been  superseded 
in  most  parts  of  Greece.  No  earlier  inscriptions,  representing  the  Achaean  dialect 
in  its  purity,  have  been  found  as  yet.  From  Thetonion  however,  near  Cierion  in 
Thessaliotis,  about  twenty  miles  north  of  the  border,  we  have  an  inscription  of  the 
fifth  century  (C.  /.  C,  xii  ii  257)  in  a  curious  mixed  dialect,  which  combines  north- 
western Greek  and  Thessalian  (Aeolic)  characteristics  in  the  proportion  of  about  7  :  3 
(or  4).  The  evidence  of  this  inscription  seems  to  me  to  dispose  definitely  of  the 
hypothesis  that  the  introduction  of  north-western  Greek  into  this  region  was  due 
to  the  influence  of  the  Aetolian  League.  Even  the  dialect  of  Pharsalos  is  not  quite 
pure  Thessalian. 

3  Cauer,  Delectus'^,  Nos.  239,  386.  The  former  is  included  by  Prof.  Cauer,  no 
doubt  rightly,  among  the  Aetolian  inscriptions. 

*  The  extension  of  the  Dat.  pi.  ending  -ots  to  consonant-stems  etc.  has  often  been 
quoted  as  a  mark  of  Aetolian  influence.  But  in  reality  it  is  common  to  all  the 
dialects  of  western  Greece.  The  earliest  examples  apparently  occur  in  Elean  and 
Locrian  inscriptions. 


f 


282  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

If  we  are  to  trust  all  the  evidence  which  we  possess  Othrys, 
and  not  Oite,  was  the  southern  limit  of  the  Aeolic  (Thessalian) 
dialect.  The  communities  of  Phthiotis  were  politically  dependent 
upon  Thessaly,  but  they  seem  never  to  have  been  subjugated  in 
the  same  way  as  the  Aeolic  population  north  of  the  mountains^ 
They  had  their  own  troops  and  sent  a  separate  contingent  to 
Xerxes'  army.  Indeed  Herodotus  (vii  173,  196  ff.)  clearly 
distinguishes  between  'Thessaly'  and  'Achaia'  (i.e.  Phthiotis). 
Moreover  it  appears  to  have  been  the  general  opinion  among 
the  Greeks  themselves  that  this  district  was  the  original  home 
of  the  Achaeans  of  the  Peloponnesos.  Pausanias  (vii  1.6)  traces 
the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans  to  Archandros  and  Architeles,  the 
sons  of  Achaios,  who  had  come  from  Phthiotisl  Herodotus 
(11  98)  was  evidently  familiar  with  some  form  of  this  story, 
though  he  calls  Archandros  son  of  Phthios  and  grandson  of 
Achaios.  The  supposed  connection  therefore  goes  back  at  least 
to  the  fifth  century.  How  far  these  genealogies  were  constructed 
upon  linguistic  affinities  is  a  question  which  needs  some  dis- 
cussion. We  may  remark  in  passing  however  that  the  dialect 
of  the  Peloponnesian  Achaia,  so  far  as  it  is  known  to  us*,  shows 
but  little  difference  from  the  dialects  north  of  the  Gulf  of 
Corinth.  It  is  commonly  included  in  the  list  of  '  north-west 
Greek'  dialects. 

In  the  meantime  we  may  notice   an    argument  which    has 

^  According  to  the  generally  accepted  view,  which  there  seems  to  be  no  reason 
for  doubting,  the  language  of  the  Thessalian  (Aeolic  or  '  North-Thessalian ')  in- 
scriptions belonged  originally  to  the  indigenous  population.  The  name  '  Thessalian  ' 
however,  properly  speaking,  belonged  to  the  invaders,  regarding  whose  language  we 
have  no  information. 

'^  Strabo  (viii  5.  5)  likewise  connects  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans  with  Phthiotis; 
but  he  attributes  their  settlement  in  the  Peloponnesos  to  an  invasion  by  Pelops.  In 
this  passage  (as  in  many  others)  it  is  greatly  to  be  questioned  whether  Strabo  (or  the 
authority  whom  he  followed)  was  recording  genuine  tradition — whether  he  was  not 
rather  endeavouring  to  provide  an  explanation  of  the  traditions. 

•*  The  inscriptions  are  late ;  but  their  evidence  as  to  the  general  character  of  the 
dialect  is  confirmed  by  some  short  but  early  inscriptions  from  the  Achaean  settlements 
in  Italy.  It  is  assumed  by  many  scholars  that  Arcadian  was  the  original  language  of 
the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans ;  but  I  am  not  aware  that  any  evidence  worth  con- 
sideration has  been  adduced  in  support  of  this  view.  No  ancient  authorities,  so  far  as 
I  know,  connect  the  Arcadians  with  the  Achaeans,  nor  do  the  Arcadians  themselves 
appear  to  have  claimed  such  a  connection. 


XIII]  MYTH   IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  283 

sometimes  been  brought  forward  in  support  of  the  hypothesis 
that  Aeolic  was  once  spoken  much  further  south.  This  is  the 
presence  of  an  Aeolic  or  semi-Aeolic  form  of  language  in 
Boeotia.  The  ancients  themselves  believed  that  the  Boeotians 
were  not  indigenous.  Thucydides  (i  12)  states  that  they  had 
been  expelled  by  the  Thessalians  from  '  Arne '  after  the  Trojan 
War ;  but  this  was  not  the  only  form  of  the  story.  On  the 
other  hand  many  modern  scholars  have  adopted  the  view  that 
the  'north-western'  dialects  of  Locris  and  Phocis  were  intrusive\ 
and  that  the  non-Aeolic  characteristics  of  the  Boeotian  dialect 
itself  were  due  to  an  extension  of  the  same  movement — in  short 
that  Aeolic  was  the  earliest  form  of  Greek  spoken  throughout 
the  whole  region  from  Thessaly  down  to  the  borders  of  Attica. 
For  such  a  displacement  of  population^  no  evidence  is  to  be  found 
either  in  history  or  tradition.  Moreover  this  hypothesis  has 
opposed  to  it  the  evidence  of  what  may  be  called  linguistic 
geography.  The  Ionic  dialects  of  Euboea  and  Attica  have 
much  more  in  common  with  the  '  north-western '  dialects  of 
Locris  and  Bhocis  than  they  have  with  Boeotian.  The  latter 
indeed  stands  quite  isolated  in  many  respects  among  the  dialects 
of  this  part  of  Greece.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to  notice  the 
close  pronunciation  of  e  (e.g.  in  Gen.  sg.  fieiv6<i)  and  the  open 
pronunciation  of  o  (e.g.  in  Ace.  pi.  rw?) — both  of  which  are 
probably  to  be  regarded  as  Aeolic  characteristics — the  use  of 
Aeolic  patronymics  in  -ios  (e.g.  "\inra>v  'A6avo8copio<i)  and  more 
especially  the  Aeolic  tendency  to  change  labiovelar  explosives 
into  labials  before  I,  which  we  find  exemplified  at  both  ex- 
tremities of  the  Boeotian  area  (Be\(f)oi,  Heu/iaTTo?).     The  last 

^  This  theory  is  of  course  quite  distinct  from  the  theory  which  traces  the  language 
of  the  Phthiotic  inscriptions  to  the  influence  of  the  Aetolian  League.  The  two  are 
scarcely  reconcilable  if  it  be  held  that  the  Locrians  and  Phocians  came  from  the 
north-west ;  for  in  that  case  their  route  must  have  lain  through  the  valley  of 
the  Spercheios,  a  district  which  would  not  readily  be  neglected  by  peoples  seeking 
new  territories. 

2  I.e.  in  times  subsequent  to  the  Heroic  Age.  I  do  not  mean  of  course  to  suggest 
that  the  north-west  Greek  dialects  belonged  originally  to  these  districts ;  but  I  see  no 
reason  for  supposing  that  the  previous  language  was  Aeolic.  The  Ainianes  may  have 
moved  southwards  later.  But  the  language  of  their  inscriptions  (at  Hypate)  is  indis- 
tinguishable from  that  of  the  surrounding  peoples.  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that, 
according  to  the  common  tradition,  the  Dorians  themselves  had  come  from  a  district 
within  this  area. 


284  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

peculiarity  is  doubtless  one  of  the  earliest  cases  of  dialectal 
variation  which  can  be  traced  in  the  Greek  language ;  but  it 
is  impossible  to  date.  All  this  evidence  tends  to  show  that 
Aeolic  was  the  intrusive  element — in  other  words,  to  confirm 
the  tradition  that  Boeotia  was  at  some  time  invaded  by  settlers 
from  an  Aeolic-speaking  district'. 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  classify  the 
Greek  dialects  in  two  main  groups — '  East  Greek '  and  *  West 
Greek.'  In  the  former  are  included  Arcadian,  Cypriot,  Ionic 
(with  Attic)  and  the  Aeolic  dialects,  i.e.  Thessalian  and  Lesbian- 
Aeolic,  together  with  the  Aeolic  element  in  Boeotian.  To  the 
latter  are  referred  the  remaining  dialects,  i.e.  the  Doric  dialects 
and  all  the  dialects  of  the  mainland  of  Greece  except  Arcadian, 
Attic,  Thessalian  and  Boeotian,  so  far  as  Boeotian  can  be 
regarded  as  Aeolic.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  this  classi- 
fication is  altogether  satisfactory,  since  the  affinities  of  Aeolic 
with  Ionic  and  Arcadian  are  by  no  means  close  ;  as  much 
perhaps  might  be  said  for  a  division  into  '  North  Greek'  (Aeolic) 
and  '  South  Greek '  (non-Aeolic).  But  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  '  West  Greek  '  dialects,  i.e.  Doric  and  north-western 
Greek,  except  perhaps  Elean,  do  really  form  a  homogeneous 
group.  Indeed  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  the  Doric 
dialects  as  a  whole  show  any  divergence  from  the  other  members 
of  the  group",  though  there  are  marked  differences  between  one 
Doric  dialect  and  another.  It  is  this  West  Greek  group  which 
specially  requires  our  attention,  for  according  to  all  the  evidence 
we  possess  it  included  the  dialects  of  both  the  Phthiotic  Achaeans 
and  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans. 

'  It  may  be  added  that  the  fertile  plains  of  Boeotia  are  more  likely  to  have 
attracted  invaders  than  the  mountainous  lands  to  the  north-west. 

^  Cf.  Meister,  Sachs.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  Abhandl.  1906,  Nr.  3,  summarised  p.  96  ff., 
where  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  characteristics  commonly  described  as  Dorian 
belong  in  reality  also  to  Achaean  and  that  in  general  they  are  rather  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  latter.  At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  noted  that  some  of  the  characteristics  here 
claimed  as  specifically  Dorian  are  shared  also  by  Cypriot,  a  fact  which  rather  suggests 
that  they  may  be  indigenous  to  the  south-east  of  the  Peloponnesos.  If  the  Dorians 
came  from  the  same  quarter  as  the  Achaeans — and  not  very  many  generations  later — 
it  is  intelligible  enough  that  the  two  groups  of  dialects  should  be  difficult  to  distinguish, 
even  apart  from  the  fact  that  an  Achaean  stratum — however  insignificant  numerically 
— underlies  the  Dorian  practically  everywhere. 


i 


I 


XIIl]  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  285 

Now  let  us  return  to  the  genealogical  problem.  We  have 
seen  that  Herodotus  was  familiar  with  a  story  which  traced 
the  descent  of  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans  from  Phthios  the  son 
of  Achaios.  The  same  writer  elsewhere  (l  56,  etc.)  draws  a 
distinction  between  '  Hellenic'  and  '  Pelasgian'  peoples.  Among 
the  former  he  includes  the  Dorians  ;  among  the  latter  the 
Athenians  (l  56,  viii  44),  the  lonians  (vii  94),  the  Arcadians 
(I  146)  and  the  Aeolians  (VII  95).  By  AtoXee?  he  means  here 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Asiatic  Aeolis.  But  in  view  of  other 
passages  (l  57,  vii  176)  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  he 
would  have  included  the  earlier  population  of  Thessaly  in  the 
same  category. 

Now  Herodotus  himself  believed  the  Pelasgoi  to  have  been 
a  barbarous  nation.  The  peoples  of  whom  he  is  speaking  here 
were  regarded  by  him  as  '  Hellenized'  Pelasgoi.  Some  modern 
writers  think  that  he  was  mistaken  in  this  view,  and  that  the 
Pelasgoi  were  a  Greek  people  from  the  beginning^  Some 
hold  also  that  the  term  HeXaayoi  in  most  of  these  cases  is  due 
simply  to  the  influence  of  genealogies^  It  is  a  serious  objection 
to  this  latter  view  that  the  well-known  genealogy  in  which  the 
descent  of  Ion,  as  well  as  Aiolos,  is  traced  from  Hellen,  goes 
back  at  least  two  or  three  centuries  before  the  time  of  Herodotus. 
But  we  are  not  primarily  concerned  here  with  Herodotus' 
opinions  ;  for  it  is  clear  from  the  expressions  which  he  uses 
(e.g.  VII  95  :  TO  TrdXac  KaXeo/xevot  YleXaayol,  009  'EiWjjvoov  Xoyo'i) 
that  the  distinction  between  HeXaayoi  and  "EXXrjve'i  was  one 
which  was  generally  recognised  in  his  time.  Some  of  his  con- 
temporaries may  have  regarded  the  Pelasgoi  as  Greeks,  others 
as  barbarians.     What  was  generally  agreed  was  that  the  term 

^  Cf.  especially  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertkutns,  11  p.  55  f.,  Forsck.  zur  alten 
Geschichte,  i  p.  112  ff.;  Ridgeway,  Early  Age  of  Greece,  p.  659  ff.,  etc.;  Kretschmer, 
Glotta,  I  17  ff.  Prof.  Meyer  has  subsequently  abandoned  this  view  (Gesch.  d.  Alt?, 
I  p.  687). 

2  Cf.  Meyer,  Forsch.  i  {passim).  The  genealogical  explanation  seems  to  me  to 
be  pressed  too  far  here.  The  case  of  the  Arcadians  is  the  one  in  which  it  is  most 
probable,  since  apart  from  genealogies  there  is  no  real  evidence  that  this  people 
was  connected  with  the  Pelasgoi  in  any  way.  Yet  even  here  the  cause  assigned  {ib., 
p.  53  ff.)  is  scarcely  adequate.  One  might  rather  suspect  a  confusion  or  identification 
of  the  names  Auxduf  and  Avkolos  ;  but  I  have  no  inclination  to  propound  a  theory  on 
the  subject. 


286  MYTH   IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

"E\\77i/€9  was  originally  applied  only  to  a  portion  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Greece.  We  may  refer  to  Thucydides  (l  3^):  "The 
different  tribes,  of  which  the  Pelasgian  was  the  most  widely 
spread,  gave  their  own  names  to  different  districts.  But  when 
Hellen  and  his  sons  became  powerful  in  Phthiotis,  their  aid  was 
invoked  by  other  cities,  and  those  who  were  associated  with 
them  gradually  began  to  be  called  Hellenes,  though  a  long 
time  elapsed  before  the  name  prevailed  over  the  whole  country. 
Of  this  Homer  affords  the  best  evidence ;  for  he,  although  he 
lived  long  after  the  Trojan  War,  nowhere  uses  this  name 
collectively,  but  confines  it  to  the  followers  of  Achilles  from 
Phthiotis,  who  were  the  original  Hellenes."  In  a  certain  sense 
therefore  we  may  regard  HeXaa-yol  as  a  term  of  negative  value, 
i.e.  '  non-Hellenic' 

Herodotus  does  not  expressly  describe  any  people  as 
'  Hellenic,'  in  the  narrower  sense,  except  the  Dorians.  But  we 
are  surely  not  justified  in  concluding  from  this  that  he  regarded 
the  Dorians  as  the  only  true  Hellenes^  He  is  interested  in 
pointing  out  that  certain  Greek  (Hellenic)  peoples  were  believed 
to  be  of  Pelasgian  origin.  Doubtless  he  considered  it  unneces- 
sary to  say  that  those  for  whom  no  such  origin  was  claimed 
were  really  Hellenes,  except  in  such  a  passage  as  I  56,  where 
a  *  Hellenic  '  and  a  '  Pelasgian  '  people  are  specially  contrasted 
with  each  other.  In  general  then  the  presumption  is  rather 
that  a  people  was  believed  to  be  truly  Hellenic,  unless  we  have 
a  statement  to  the  contrary.  In  particular  however  it  is  incredible 
that  the  Achaeans  were  regarded  as  Pelasgian,  for  it  was  in  the 
Achaean  Phthiotis — more  properly  perhaps  in  '  Phthia ' — that 
traditional  belief  located  the  eponymous  Hellen.  Thucydides, 
as  we  have  seen,  observes  that  this  belief  was  confirmed  by  the 
evidence  of  the  Homeric  poems.  The  term  '  Hellenic  '  belongs 
essentially  to  the  followers  of  Achilles  {o'lirep  koI  irpooToi 
"EWrjve^    riaav). 

It  can  hardly  be  contended  either  that  the  story  of  Hellen  is 
derived  from  the  Homeric  usage,  or  that  the  Homeric  usage  is 

*  Quoted  from  Jowett's  translation. 

2  Cf.  Meyer,  Forsck.,   I  p.  115;    yet  in  another  passage  {ib.,  p.  11 1,  note)  con- 
siderations are  pointed  out  which  can  hardly  have  been  unfamiliar  to  Herodotus. 


XIII]  MYTH   IN    THE    HOMERIC    POEMS  287 

derived  from  the  story  of  Hellen.  Both  alike  are  based  on  the 
common  knowledge  or  belief  that  the  names  "EWT/i/e?  and 
*EX\a9  belonged  originally  to  Phthia.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see 
why  names  from  such  a  district,  obscure  and  remote  as  it  was, 
should  come  to  be  applied  to  the  whole  nation.  The  valley  of 
the  Spercheios  was  regarded  as  the  gate  of  Greece.  Certain 
peoples,  such  as  the  Boeotians  and  Eleans,  may  have  come  into 
possession  of  their  territories  by  maritime  invasions.  But  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  in  pre-historic,  as  in  historical  times — 
we  may  refer  to  the  Persians  and  the  Gauls — great  invasions 
usually  made  their  way  through  the  pass  of  Thermopylai.  That 
is  true  probably  not  only  of  the  later  invasions  of  the  '  West 
Greek  '  peoples  (the  Achaeans,  Locrians,  Dorians,  etc.)  but  also 
of  those  much  earlier  movements  by  which  the  first  Greek 
populations — the  ancestors  of  the  lonians  and  Arcadians — were 
introduced  into  the  peninsula.  But  if  we  are  to  trust  all  the 
evidence  at  our  disposal  it  was  with  the  later  movements  that 
the  names  'EXX.d<;^  and^EXXrive^^  were  originally  connected. 

The  results  of  our  discussion  may  now  be  summarised  as 
follows :  (i)  According  to  current  hypotheses  the  language  of 
the  Achaeans  of  Phthiotis  was  Aeolic,  while  that  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  Achaeans  was  perhaps  Arcadian  ;  but  in  point  of 
fact  all  the  linguistic  evidence  which  we  have  from  both  districts 
(including  the  colonies  of  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans)  is 
definitely  West  Greek.  In  all  probability  the  valley  of  the 
Spercheios  was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  actually  the  very  first, 
of  the  districts  occupied  by  the  West  Greeks  in  the  eastern  and 
southern  parts  of  the  peninsula,  (ii)  According  to  a  belief  current 
in  the  fifth  century  certain  Greek  peoples  were  truly  '  Hellenic,' 
while  others  were  of  '  Pelasgian  '  origin.  The  former  category 
coincided,  at  least  to  a  large  extent,  with  the  *  West  Greek ' 
linguistic  division,  the  latter  with  the  '  East  Greek  '  division,  or 
— to  speak   more  accurately — with  the    northern,  eastern   and 

^  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  name  i]  fieydXri  'EXXdy  appears  to  have  come 
from  the  Achaean  colonies  in  Italy. 

^  It  is  worth  noting  that  stems  in  -aw-,  as  names  of  peoples,  seem  to  have  been 
specially  characteristic  of  north-western  Greek ;  e.g.  Alviai'es,  'Adafidves,  'EvpvrS.ves, 
Ke(pa\\S.v€s,  'AKapvdves. 


288  MYTH   IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

southern  groups  of  dialects.  In  certain  cases,  owing  to  the 
silence  of  our  authorities,  it  may  be  permissible  to  doubt  whether 
a  people  was  regarded  as  '  Hellenic  '  or  '  Pelasgian' ;  but  no  such 
doubt  applies  to  the  followers  of  Achilles,  'who  were  the  original 
Hellenes.'  It  was  in  Phthia  that  much  earlier  tradition  located 
the  eponymous  Hellen  ;  and  from  the  same  district  came 
Archandros  and  Architeles,  the  legendary  progenitors  of  the 
Peloponnesian  Achaeans,  several  generations  before  the  Trojan 
War.  It  is  clear  then  that  the '  West  Greek '  language  of  the 
extant  inscriptions  is  in  perfect  agreement  with  the  belief  of 
the  fifth  century  Greeks  that  this  community  was  essentially 
Hellenic.  We  may  dismiss  therefore  as  totally  without  founda- 
tion the  hypothesis  that  Achilles  was  ah  Aeolic  (or  Pelasgian) 
hero^ 

Now  let  us  drop  hypotheses  and  consider  briefly  the  evidence 
actually  furnished  by  the  Iliad.  The  poem  leaves  us  in  no  doubt 
as  to  who  are  regarded  as  the  principal  persons  in  the  Achaean 
army.  In  il  404  ff.  Agamemnon  is  represented  as  calling 
together  "  the  elders,  the  chiefs  of  the  whole  Achaean  host  " 
(jepovTwi  apLcrTrja<i  Uavaxatd^v).  They  are  Nestor,  Idomeneus, 
Aias  the  son  of  Telamon  and  his  Locrian  namesake,  Diomedes^ 
Odysseus  and  Menelaos.  In  another  council  (x  194  ff.)  we  find 
the  same  party  together  with  three  additional  persons,  Thrasy- 
medes,  Meriones  and  Meges.  In  the  debates,  which  occur  so 
frequently,  the  leading  speakers  are  almost  always  Agamemnon, 
Nestor,  Diomedes,  Odysseus  and  Menelaos.  In  the  battle 
scenes  the  aged  Nestor  naturally  does  not  play  an  active  part. 
The  other  four  heroes  however,  together  with  Idomeneus,  Aias 
the  son  of  Telamon  and  (to  a  somewhat  less  extent)  the  Locrian 
Aias,  are  by  far  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  the  army.  In 
response  to  Hector's  challenge,  from  which  Menelaos  has  been 
forced  to  retire,  all  the  other  six  come  forward,  together  with 
Meriones,  Eurypylos  and  Thoas.     There  can  be  no  doubt  then 

^  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  notice  the  subsidiary  arguments  which  have  been 
adduced  in  favour  of  the  hypothesis — e.g.  that  Achilles  had  been  instructed  by  the 
Centaur  Cheiron  and  that  his  spear  had  come  from  Pelion.  They  are  sufficiently 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  poems  are  of  Aeolic  origin.  The  suggestion  that 
Peleus  himself  is  the  eponymus  of  Pelion  belongs  to  a  class  which  has  been  sufficiently 
discussed  above  (p.  267  ff.). 


t 


MAP    OF    GREECE 
illustrating  the  'Catalogue  of  Ships' 

The  numerals  denote  cities  or  territories  belonging  to  the 
cliief  leaders  of  the  Acliaeans. 


1  possessions  of  Odysseus 

2  ,,  Nestor 

3  ,,  Menelaos 

4  ,,  Agamemnon 


5  possessions  of  Diomedes,  etc. 

6  ,,  Aias  son  of  Telamon 

7  ,,  Aias  son  of  Oileus 

8  ,,  Achilles 


i 


21 


C.  Tainaron 


22    LonK.K.of Greenwich    2'A 


MAP    OF    GREECE 

showing  the  distribution  of  the  dialects  in  historical  times 

Aeolic  (Thessalian  and  Boeotian)  |j|jjj||||||| 

Ionic  (with  Attic)  p^ 

Arcadian  ^^ 

West  Greek  dialects  not  shaded. 


XIII]  MYTH   IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  289 

that  the  eight  leading  men  are  Agamemnon  and  his  brother, 
Nestor,  Idomeneus,  the  two  Aiantes,  Diomedes  and  Odysseus. 
To  these  we  must  certainly  add  Achilles,  who  is  in  retirement 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  poem. 

Hypothesis  after  hypothesis  has  been  tried  in  order  to  claim 
an  Aeolic  or  Ionic  origin  for  most  of  these  heroes.  The  plain 
fact  is  that  all  except  one^  belong  to  communities  which  in  the 
fifth  century  were  regarded  as  truly  '  Hellenic ' — or  at  all  events 
to  districts  where  dialects  of  the  West  Greek  type  prevailed 
in  historical  times.  The  leading  Aeolic  hero  is  Eurypylos  ;  but 
he  ranks  only  with  Meriones,  the  Cretan  second-in-command, 
Thoas  the  Aetolian  and  Nestor's  sons.  The  other  Aeolic  and 
Ionic  leaders  are  distinctly  less  prominent. 

From  the  evidence  at  our  disposal  it  seems  to  me  that,  if  the 
poets  of  the  Iliad,  or  rather  their  predecessors,  were  interested 
in  any  nationality  at  all,  that  nationality  must  have  been  West 
Greek  or  '  Hellenic'  Of  the  two  chief  leaders  one  belongs  to 
Achaia  Phthiotis,  the  other  to  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans ; 
the  Catalogue  of  Ships  (II.  II  569  ff.)  assigns  to  him  territories 
which  in  the  main  coincide  with  the  later  Achaia,  though  they 
cover  a  somewhat  larger  area.  We  have  scarcely  any  evidence 
worth  consideration  that  either  Achaia  Phthiotis  or  the  Pelopon- 
nesian Achaia  was  ever  held  by  a  different  nationality  within  the 
period  embraced  by  history  and  tradition ^  The  territories  of 
the  other  chief  Peloponnesian  leaders  were  occupied  in  historical 
times  by  the  Dorians.  But  it  was  the  unanimous  belief  of  the 
ancient  world  that  the  Dorian  period  had  been  preceded  by  an 
age  of  Achaean  domination  in  the  east,  south  and  west  of  the 
peninsula.  Lastly,  the  Odyssey  (XIX  175),  in  a  passage  which 
is  commonly  believed  to  preserve  a  true  ethnographical  record, 

^  The  exceptional  case  is  that  of  Aias  the  son  of  Telamon.  But  we  have  no 
information  relating  to  Salamis  before  its  conquest  by  the  Athenians  in  the  sixth 
century.     It  may  have  been  under  Achaean  rule  in  early  times. 

^  In  the  case  of  the  Peloponnesian  Achaia  it  is  conceivable  that  a  genuine  tradition 
of  a  conquest  of  earlier  (Ionic)  inhabitants  may  be  preserved  in  Herod,  i  145.  But 
the  story  that  this  conquest  was  connected  with  the  Dorian  invasion  can  hardly  be 
due  to  anything  but '  combination' ;  and  traces  of  such  a  process  can  be  distinguished 
plainly  enough  in  Herodotus'  account.  The  important  fact  is  that  the  author  of  the 
Catalogue  of  Ships  evidently  knew  nothing  of  the  story. 


290  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

speaks  of  the  presence  of  Achaeans  in  Crete.  Thus  at  least  six^ 
of  the  nine  principal  leaders  come  from  regions  with  an  Achaean 
population.  In  view  of  this  fact  is  it  any  wonder  that  'A;!^atot 
is  by  far  the  commonest  term  applied  in  the  poems  to  the  Greeks 
collectively^?  This  then  must  be  the  nationality  in  which  the 
poets  were  interested.  But  the  Achaeans  of  historical  times,  as 
we  have  seen,  everywhere  used  a  form  of  language  which  is  West 
Greek.  Moreover,  it  is  to  the  northern  Achaeans  that  we  first 
find  the  name  "E\\rjve<;  applied  (II.  II  684).  The  facts  noted 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  Achaeans  were  the  dominant  people 
of  the  West  Greeks — indeed,  we  may  say,  of  the  Greeks  generally 
— during  the  Heroic  Age,  a  position  in  which  they  were 
eventually  succeeded  by  the  Dorians. 

But  the  poems  themselves  are  of  Aeolic  origin.  It  is  this 
fact — supported  by  speculations  of  writers  of  the  Roman  period, 
who  included  under  the  term  'Aeolic  '  every  dialect  not  obviously 
Doric,  Ionic  or  Attic^ — which  has  led  to  the  unfortunate  equation 
'  Achaean' =  ' Aeolic'  In  reality  the  heroes  and  the  poems 
belong  to  two  entirely  different  sections  of  the  Greek  nation. 
Shall  we  then  set  up  another  hypothesis — that  the  original 
poems  were  Achaean  ?  But  then  we  should  only  be  repeating 
the  old  error  of  building  hypothesis  upon  hypothesis.  For  it  is 
a  hypothesis,  and  nothing  more,  that  the  original  poems  were 
concerned  with  tribal  or  national  interests  ;  the  poems  which 
have  come  down  to  us  deal  with  the  fortunes  of  individuals. 
Moreover  we  should  not  thereby  save  the  theory  that  the  Iliad 
is  a  reflection  of  the  Greek  settlement  of  the  north-western  coast 
of  Asia  Minor ;  for  that  settlement  was  not  Achaean  but  Aeolic. 
The  truth  is  that  the  initial  hypothesis  is  entirely  unjustified. 
We  have  no  more  reason  for  supposing  that  the  heroes  must  be 

1  We  may  probably  add  Odysseus.  In  the  Odyssey  the  hero's  subjects  are 
regularly  described  as  'AxatoL  They  are  not  called  'Apyeloi  or  Aavaol,  although  the 
three  names  are  used  interchangeably  as  collective  terms  for  the  Greek  army  before 
Troy.  Regarding  the  national  affinities  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ionian  Isles  in  later 
times  we  have  little  information ;  but  the  language  was  clearly  of  the  '  north-west 
Greek '  type.  Indeed  Aias  the  son  of  Oileus  is  the  only  one  of  the  nine  heroes  in 
whose  case  Achaean  nationality  is  distinctly  improbable. 

^  The  figures  for  the  Iliad  are  :  'AxaioL  605,  'Apyeloi  176,  Aavaol  146  ;  cf.  Cauer, 
Crundfragen^,  p.  220. 

^  Cf.  especially  Strabo,  vui  i.  2. 


XIII]  MYTH    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  29 1 

Aeolic  if  the  poems  are  AeoHc — or  that  the  poems  must  be 
Achaean  if  the  heroes  are  Achaean — than  we  have  for  assuming 
that  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems  were  of  Danish  or  Gothic  origin 
because  Danes  and  Goths  figure  in  them  more  prominently  than 
persons  of  Enghsh  nationaHty.  It  is  Hkely  enough  that  poems 
once  existed  dealing  with  Aeolic  heroes,  such  as  lason,  perhaps 
also  Peirithoos  and  others.  But  the  reason  for  the  prominence 
assigned  to  Achaean  heroes,  at  all  events  in  the  poems  which 
have  survived,  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  national  sympathies  or 
interests  of  the  poets,  but  in  the  fact  that  during  the  Heroic  Age 
the  Achaeans  were  the  dominant  people  in  Greece. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC    POEMS. 

We  have  now  to  consider  briefly  how  far  the  use  of  fiction, 
i.e.  of  conscious,  deliberate  invention,  was  permitted  in  the 
composition  of  Greek  heroic  poetry.  This  question  gave  us 
considerable  difficulty  when  we  were  discussing  the  Teutonic 
poems.  It  is  assuredly  not  less  difficult  here.  The  higher 
artistic  level  of  the  Greek  poems  cannot  but  pre-dispose  us  in 
favour  of  the  view  that  their  use  of  fiction  is  of  a  more  advanced 
type.  This  expectation  is  fully  realised  in  the  elaborate  pre- 
sentation of  many  of  the  scenes,  whether  the  actors  be  human 
beings  who  may  or  may  not  have  taken  part  in  the  events 
described,  or  divine  beings  whose  mythical  origin  no  one  will 
dispute.  In  the  (rvaTaai<;  rdov  Trpay/jbaTcov  the  art  of  poetic 
invention  is  developed  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 

The  chief  difference  between  our  present  problem  and  the 
one  which  we  had  to  consider  in  Chapter  VIII  lies  in  the  fact 
that  here  we  are  entirely  without  that  contemporary  historical 
evidence  which  enables  us  to  recognise  some  characters  or 
events  in  nearly  all  the  Teutonic  poems.  The  way  lies  open 
therefore  for  regarding  the  whole  story  of  the  siege  of  Troy  as 
a  product  of  fiction  ;  and  this  is  a  view  which  many  modern 
scholars  have  adopted.  For  an  example  we  can  scarcely 
do  better  than  quote  the  words  of  the  late  Sir  R.  C.  Jebb 
{Introduction  to  Homer,  p.  147):  "The  tale  of  Troy,  as  we 
have  it  in  Homer,  is  essentially  a  poetic  creation  ;  and  the  poet 
is  the  sole  witness."  The  same  scholar  was  prepared  to  grant 
that  "  some  memorable  capture  of  a  town  in  the  Troad  had 
probably  been  made  by  Greek  warriors";  but,  he  adds,  "beyond 


CHAP.  XIV]        FICTION    IN   THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  293 

this  we  cannot  safely  go."  This  attitude  is  doubtless  perfectly- 
correct  from  the  historian's  point  of  view.  But  if  we  approach 
the  problem  from  the  ethnologist's  side  we  cannot  rest  satisfied 
with  an  attitude  of  scepticism  owing  to  the  absence  of  historical 
evidence.  Our  duty  includes  the  question  how  far  we  are  justi- 
fied in  admitting  the  use  of  fiction.  The  Iliad  would  still  be 
a  great  monument  of  human  genius  even  if  all  the  characters 
and  events  in  it  could  be  proved  to  be  historical.  But  if  it  is 
wholly,  or  almost  wholly,  a  work  of  fiction  we  shall  have  to 
conclude  that  the  Homeric  poets  had  developed  the  inventive 
faculty  to  a  degree  which  has  scarcely  been  equalled  even  in 
our  own  days.  That  is  a  conclusion  which  we  shall  do  well 
to  adopt  only  after  careful  consideration,  seeing  that  we  are 
dealing  with  the  earliest  monument  of  European  literature. 
Scepticism  is  required  in  this  direction  therefore  just  as  much 
as  in  the  other. 

At  the  outset  we  are  confronted  by  two  considerations  which 
amply  justify  this  attitude.  The  first  is  the  evidence  of  the 
Teutonic  poems.  Here,  as  we  have  seen,  myth  and  folk-tale 
both  play  their  parts,  the  latter  often  a  very  important  part. 
But  we  have  no  proof  that  any  one  of  the  stories  is  a  product 
of  conscious  fiction.  Wherever  we  can  put  it  to  the  test,  the 
setting  is  found  to  be  historical,  at  least  in  the  earlier  forms  of 
the  stories.  In  medieval  poetry  we  meet  with  many  fictitious 
stories  of  wars  waged  by  imaginary  kings  of,  let  us  say,  Byzan- 
tium or  Britain.  But  in  poetry  which  is  entirely  free  from 
scholastic  influence,  such  as  the  old  heroic  poems  or  the  poems 
of  the  Viking  Age,  we  shall  look  in  vain  for  trustworthy 
examples.  The  same  remark  is  probably  true  of  Slavonic 
and  Cumbrian  heroic  poetry. 

The  other  consideration  is  still  more  serious.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  the  ancient  Greeks  themselves.  Here  again  we  may 
quote  Sir  R.  C.  Jebb's  work  (p.  84)  :  "  They  held  that  his  events 
and  his  persons  were,  in  the  main,  real....Thucydides  differs 
from  Herodotus  in  bringing  down  the  Homeric  heroes  more 
nearly  to  the  level  of  common  men.  But  the  basis  of  fact  in 
Homer  is  fully  as  real  to  Thucydides  as  to  Herodotus."  The 
current  hypothesis  assumes  that  both  were  deceived,  and  with 


294  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

them  the  universal  consensus  of  educated  Greek  opinion.  But 
is  not  this  a  strange  assumption  ?  Those  who  hold  that  the 
Homeric  poems  are  wholly  the  work  of  one  author  may  cherish 
the  belief  that  this  person  was  so  gifted  as  to  be  able  to  per- 
petrate a  hoax  upon  his  countrymen  which  in  their  most  enlight- 
ened days  they  never  succeeded  in  detecting.  But  I  do  not  see 
how  any  such  idea  can  be  reconciled  with  the  theory  of  evolution. 
The  story  was  invented,  we  must  presume,  by  the  first  poet  and 
elaborated  by  his  successors.  Were  these  latter  persons  cognisant 
of  the  deception?  If  not,  we  must  regard  their  contributions  as 
negligible  ;  and  consequently  we  are  brought  back  virtually  to 
the  theory  of  single  authorship.  And  yet  no  one  will  suggest  that 
the  poets  of  several  generations  were  accomplices  in  such  a 
deception.  The  only  alternative  then,  which  remains,  is  that 
the  poets  invented  and  elaborated  a  romance,  which  they  did  not 
intend  to  be  taken  seriously.  How  greatly  then  has  the  history 
of  Greek  thought  been  misunderstood  !  It  appears  now  that 
the  period  between  the  ninth  and  the  fifth  centuries  was 
characterised  not  by  intellectual  emancipation  but  by  the 
growth  of  credulity. 

In  view  of  these  considerations  the  burden  of  proof  must  be 
held  to  lie  with  those  who  hold  that  the  story  is  fictitious.  Until 
such  proof  is  forthcoming  it  seems  to  me  that  the  only  reasonable 
course  is  to  follow  the  opinion  of  the  ancients,  except  in  so  far 
as  we  have  good  reason  for  believing  that  they  were  mistaken. 
The  ancients  not  only  accepted  the  siege  of  Troy  as  a  historical 
fact ;  they  were  prepared  also  to  point  out  the  site  of  the  city. 
The  correctness  of  this  identification  was  indeed  disputed  by 
Demetrios  of  Scepsis,  a  native  antiquary  of  the  second  century, 
who  fixed  upon  another  site,  some  four  miles  away ;  while 
modern  scholars  until  recently  believed  that  both  were  wrong. 
This  is  why  in  the  passage  quoted  above  Sir  R.  C.  Jebb  used 
the  expression  "  a  city  in  the  Troad."  But  about  five  or  six 
years  after  the  publication  of  his  book  the  traditional  site  was 
fully  vindicated  by  the  excavations  of  Dr  Dorpfeld,  which 
brought  to  light  the  remains  of  a  fortress  dating,  approximately 
at  least,  from  the  period  indicated  by  the  story.  It  was  made 
clear  also  that  this  fortress  had  been  destroyed,  presumably  by 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  295 

enemies.  That  the  destroyers  were  Greeks  could  not  of  course 
be  proved  by  the  excavations.  But  the  evidence  of  the  poems 
in  this  respect  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  district  was 
inhabited  by  Greeks  in  later  times ^ 

It  is  held  by  many  scholars  that  the  story  of  the  siege  of 
Troy  is  a  reflection  of  the  AeoHc  colonisation  of  the  Asiatic 
coast.  We  have  already  discussed  the  principle  underlying  this 
theory  and  found  no  evidence  in  its  favour.  But  it  does  not 
follow  from  this  that  the  two  events  were  unconnected.  One  of 
the  most  famous  stories^  recorded  by  Scandinavian  tradition  is 
that  of  the  expedition  to  England  which  was  undertaken  by  the 
sons  of  Lothbrok  for  the  purpose  of  exacting  vengeance  for  their 
father's  death.  Now  we  have  an  account  of  this  invasion  from 
a  contemporary  historical  work  (the  Saxon  Chronicle),  which 
gives  the  names  of  two  of  the  princes  (Inwaer  and  Healfdene), 
as  well  as  that  of  the  Northumbrian  king  Aella  against  whom 
the  expedition  was  directed.  We  know  also  that  Lothbrok's 
sons  were  by  no  means  contented  with  the  overthrow  of  Aella  ; 
that  on  the  contrary  they  ravaged  the  greater  part  of  England. 
Long  after  they  were  all  dead  or  departed  the  eastern  half  of 
the  country  remained  Scandinavian  territory.  According  to  the 
Iliad  Achilles  did  not  confine  his  energies  to  Troy  ;  he  is  said 
to  have  ravaged  Lesbos  and  several  places  in  the  country  round 
the  Gulf  of  Adramyttion.  Is  there  any  valid  reason  for  denying 
that  the  Greek  occupation  of  these  lands  may  have  originated 
in  such  events .''  We  need  not  suppose  of  course  that  the  con- 
quered lands  were  fully  occupied  at  once.  But  the  first  settlers 
may  well  have  secured  enough  to  serve  as  a  refuge  for  those  of 

1  It  has  been  held  that  the  Aeolic  settlements  in  the  Troad  itself  date  only  from 
the  seventh  century  (cf.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Alterthums,  II  pp.  203,  463  f.),  and 
there  is  some  evidence  that  movements  of  this  kind  were  in  operation  about  that 
time.  But  the  excavations  at  Troy  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  the  district  had 
been  occupied,  in  times  long  subsequent  to  the  destruction  of  the  fortress,  by  a 
semi-barbarous  people,  apparently  from  the  region  of  the  Danube.  The  evidence 
at  our  disposal  seems  to  indicate  that  there  were  Greek  settlements  in  existence  before 
this  time,  but  that  they  were  temporarily  overthrown  by  the  barbarians  (cf.  Bruckner, 
Troja  und  Ilion,  p.  567  ff.).  At  all  events  it  is  clear  that  the  Homeric  poets  were 
familiar  with  the  district. 

^  For  a  full  account  of  this  story  see  Mawer,  Ragnar  LothbrSk  and  his  sons 
(published  in  the  Saga-Book  of  the  Viking  Club,  Jan.  1909). 


296  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CIIAP. 

their  countrymen  who  fled  from  the  ThessaHan  invasion,  probably 
no  long  time  afterwards.  A  good  parallel  is  furnished  by  the 
Scandinavian  settlements  in  the  British  Isles,  which  served  as 
a  retreat  for  many  Norwegians  who  refused  to  bow  to  the  en- 
croachments of  Harold  the  Fair-haired. 

The  Greek  settlements  in  this  region  were  Aeolic,  a  fact  due 
probably,  as  we  have  said,  to  the  Thessalian  invasion.  But 
Achilles  was  an  Achaean,  and  the  same  is  true  of  most  of  the 
other  chief  heroes.  The  Iliad  does  not  represent  Troy  as  being 
attacked  merely  '  by  Greeks,'  but  by  an  army  gathered  together 
from  nearly  all  parts  of  Greece.  This  is  one  of  the  features  in 
the  story  to  which  objection  has  been  taken  most  generally. 
We  may  grant  freely  that  no  parallel  for  such  an  undertaking 
is  to  be  found  in  historical  times.  Indeed,  the  objection  itself 
contains  a  weak  point  here  ;  for  from  all  that  we  know  of  the 
earliest  historical  period  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  such  an  idea 
could  have  suggested  itself,  even  in  a  work  of  fiction.  On  the 
other  hand  in  the  thirteenth  and  twelfth  centuries  the  monuments 
of  Rameses  II,  Merenptah  and  Rameses  III  give  us  information 
of  expeditions  which  were  on  at  least  as  large  a  scale  and 
covered  much  greater  distances.  We  have  no  reason  for  doubt- 
ing that  such  an  undertaking  was  possible  also  in  the  eleventh 
century. 

But  if  the  expedition  itself  is  nothing  incredible  in  such  a 
period,  what  shall  we  say  with  regard  to  its  motive?  The  reason 
assigned  by  the  poem — that  it  was  brought  about  by  Paris' 
escapade — is  one  of  those  features  which  have  been  put  aside  by 
modern  scholars  as  unworthy  of  consideration.  This  attitude  is 
due  partly  to  the  application  of  modern  political  theories  to  a 
state  of  society  in  which  they  are  quite  out  of  place.  With  this 
question  we  shall  have  to  deal  in  the  following  chapter.  But  it 
is  due  still  more  to  the  absurd  hallucination  that  a  story  of 
abduction  must  have  originated  in  the  '  hypostasis  '  of  natural 
phenomena.  According  to  Scandinavian  tradition  the  expedition 
of  Lothbrok's  sons  was  inspired  by  a  purely  personal  motive — 
the  desire  to  exact  vengeance  for  their  father's  death.  But  in 
the  Heroic  Age  itself  we  have  from  a  strictly  contemporary 
authority  (cf  p.  97  f )  the  story  of  the  great  expedition  of  the 


XIV]  FICTION    IN   THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  297 

Angli  against  the  Warni,  which  was  caused  by  a  breach  of 
promise  of  marriage. 

It  appears  then  on  examination  that  the  central  feature  of 
the  story,  namely  the  destruction  of  Troy,  rests  upon  fact,  while 
the  other  main  features  gain  in  probability  the  more  one  takes 
into  account  the  conditions  of  the  age  and  the  analogies  furnished 
by  similar  stories  elsewhere.  These  considerations  tend  to 
support  the  view  that  the  employment  of  fiction  is  to  be  seen 
rather  in  the  presentation  than  in  the  conception  of  the  story. 
But  the  term  '  presentation  '  here,  just  as  in  Chapter  VIII,  must 
be  interpreted  in  a  very  liberal  sense. 

What  has  been  said  above  applies  of  course  properly  only  to 
the  Iliad.  With  the  Odyssey  the  case  is  quite  otherwise.  In 
the  first  place  we  have  to  note  that  the  ancients  themselves  took 
a  different  view  with  regard  to  this  poem — at  all  events  that 
part  of  it  which  relates  to  the  hero's  wanderings.  The  credibility 
of  the  various  incidents  was  frequently  and  warmly  debated  ; 
but  many  of  them  were  defended  only  by  an  allegorical  inter- 
pretation. Then  again  the  conditions  are  similar  to  those  in 
which  we  find  the  most  pronounced  use  of  fiction  in  early 
Teutonic  poetry.  Sigemund  is  expressly  said  to  have  been 
alone  when  he  attacked  the  dragon,  and  most  of  Beowulf's 
marvellous  exploits  are  performed  when  he  is  either  alone  or 
with  a  single  companion.  The  motif  of  the  lonely  wanderer  in 
distant  lands  is  not  prominent  in  the  remains  of  our  poetry,  but 
from  what  is  said  of  Sigemund  in  Beow.  876  ff.  we  can  scarcely 
doubt  that  it  would  have  been  utilised  for  the  exercise  of  the 
inventive  faculty. 

Now  we  have  seen  (p.  258  ff.)  that  the  hero's  narrative  in  Od. 
IX — XII  is  evidently  derived  from  an  accumulation  of  folk-tales. 
Here  the  art  of  fiction  is  shown  chiefly  in  the  poet's  adaptation 
of  this  material  to  his  own  purpose.  But  there  are  other  parts 
of  the  poem — notably  the  preceding  three  books  (vi — Vlil) — 
which  obviously  require  a  different  explanation.  It  is  frequently 
assumed  that  the  Phaeacians  are  wholly  a  creation  of  the  poet's 
fancy.     Without  going  so  far  as  this^  we  may  seriously  doubt 

^  Cf.  BaidKTj.     7r6Xts  ttjs  Xaoc/as.     '^KaraTos.     k.t.X.     (Steph.  Byz.,  s.v.)     From 
this  notice  we  gather  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  (or  earlier)  the  Greeks 


298  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

whether  they  were  a  Greek  people  and  whether  there  was  any 
foundation  in  history  or  tradition  for  the  account  given  here — 
with  a  quite  exceptional  amount  of  detail — of  their  princes,  their 
city  and  institutions.  If  this  part  of  the  story  is  to  be  regarded 
as  fiction  it  is  certainly  a  more  elaborate  type  of  fiction  than 
anything  which  we  meet  with  in  the  early  heroic  poetry  of  the 
Teutonic  peoples.  But  the  false  stories  told  by  Odysseus  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  poem  at  all  events  go  far  towards 
showing  that  such  fiction  was  not  beyond  the  power  of 
Homeric  poets. 

According  to  our  explanation  the  extensive  use  of  fiction  in 
the  story  of  Odysseus  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  this  case  the 
poet  or  poets  had  a  free  hand,  whereas  elsewhere,  more  particu- 
larly in  the  Iliad,  they  were  bound  down  by  tradition.  It  is  not 
to  be  overlooked  however  that  the  Iliad  itself  contains  many 
incidents  which  may  similarly  be  regarded  as  products  of 
invention — additions  to  the  story  which  did  not  conflict  with 
anything  that  had  been  '  handed  down.'  As  a  likely  instance  of 
this  kind  we  may  cite  the  Doloneia.  But  since  we  can  seldom 
or  never  get  beyond  a  hypothesis  with  such  cases,  it  will  be 
more  profitable,  I  think,  now  to  turn  our  attention  to  another 
question,  namely  whether  the  use  of  fiction  also  included  the 
invention  of  characters — and  if  so  to  what  extent. 

In  our  consideration  of  the  Teutonic  stories  we  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  was  no  really  satisfactory  evidence  for 
such  invention.  In  the  Homeric  poems  the  evidence  is  much 
stronger.  We  will  first  take  the  case  of  names  which  appear  to 
have  been  coined  with  an  obvious  meaning.     A  good  example 

knew  of  a  city  or  state  called  Baiace  in  Chaonia,  i.e.  opposite  the  island  of  Corfu, 
which  was  usually  identified  with  Scheria  in  ancient  times.  It  has  been  remarked  by 
several  scholars  that  the  name  Bai.dKrj  is  obviously  independent  of  Homeric  poetry. 
We  may  infer  also  (i)  that  it  was  derived  from  a  non-Greek  source  and  (ii)  that  if 
Baia/c-  and  ^ai.T)K-  are  identical  the  latter  name  must  have  become  known  to  the 
Greeks  in  very  early  times.  It  is  not  impossible  that  in  the  Heroic  Age  the  Greeks 
may  have  been  familiar  with  more  than  the  name  of  this  people ;  but  there  is  no 
evidence,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  for  the  existence  of  a  prehistoric  civilisation  on  the 
Albanian  coast — such  as  we  find  depicted  in  Od.  vi — vni.  Until  such  evidence 
is  forthcoming  probability  is  in  favour  of  the  view  that  the  picture  drawn  of  the 
Phaeacian  community  in  the  Odyssey  is  derived  from  a  different  region — most  likely 
from  the  Aegean. 


XIV]  FICTION    IN   THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  299 

occurs  in  Od.  viil  in  ff.,  where  the  Phaeacian  athletes  are 
enumerated : 

apro  fiev  'A/cpoi/ecos  re   Koi    S2(cvaXo?   koi    EXarpfir 
NauTfuf  T€   Ilpvfivevs  Tf   koi  'A'y;^iaXos   koi    'Epfrfxevs 
IlovTfvs  re   Upcopevs  Te,   06u>v     Ava^rjcrivedis  re 
Aficf>iaX6s  B'  vlos   TloXwrjov  TfKTOviSao  • 
av   8e   Koi  "EvpvaXos  jipoTokoiyco  i(Tos    Aprji, 
'Sav0o\i8r]s  6\    K.T.X. 

Other  Phaeacians  have  names  of  the  same  type,  e.g.  Nauo-Z^oo?, 
^avaiKaa,  "AXio^,  KXfToi^r^o?,  'E^ei'T^o?,  YIovtovoo<;.  In  such  a 
case  as  this  the  poet  can  scarcely  have  intended  to  deceive  his 
audience.  Indeed  the  principle  is  clearly  admitted  in  another 
passage  (XXIV  305),  where  Odysseus  in  a  false  story  describes 
himself  as  vi6<;  'A^etSayro?  UoXvirrj/xovlSao  avaKTo<i.  We  need 
not  doubt  then  that  other  names  are  constructed  on  the  same 
plan,  e.g.  that  of  the  minstrel,  ^ri^Lo<;  TepTridBr)';,  perhaps  also 
those  of  the  shipowner,  Noij/jlmu  son  of  <^p6vio<i,  and  Menelaos' 
pilot,  ^p6vTi<;  'OvrjToplSiTi.  Similar  cases  may  be  found  also  in 
the  Iliad\  e.g.  (V  59  ff.)  ^€peKXov...TeKrovo'i  v'lov  'Ap/xovlSeco, 
09  ^epaiv  eTrlcTTaTo  SalSaXa  iravra  rev^etv,  or  the  name  of  a 
Trojan  herald  (XVII  323  f )  Hepic^avri  'HirvriSTj,  probably  also 
the  spy  A6\(ov  Ev/xj^Seo?  u/o?  (x  314).  This  list  of  course  makes 
no  claim  to  be  exhaustive.  But  on  the  whole  it  can  hardly  be  said 
that  the  type  is  really  common  in  either  poem,  except  the  section 
dealing  with  the  Phaeacians. 

It  is  far  more  difficult  to  form  an  opinion  with  regard  to  the 
origin  of  characters  whose  names  bear  no  such  obvious  mark. 
Few  probably  would  be  inclined  to  doubt  that  the  names  of 
Helen's  handmaidens  (Od.  iv  123  ff.)  were  coined  by  the  poet. 

^  Possibly  Qepairris  is  another  example  of  this  type.  It  seems  to  me  more 
probable  however  that  it  is  a  nickname,  similar  to  "Ipos  (Od.  xviii  6  f.).  It  has 
been  well  connected  with  Qyipirai,  a  Laconian  name  for  Ares  or  Enyalios  (cf.  Usener, 
S.-B.  d.  Akad.  zu  IVien,  cxxxvii,  p.  53).  But  I  cannot  see  any  justification  for  the 
hypothesis  {ib.,  p.  57)  that  the  practices  described  by  Pausanias  (iil  14.  8  f.;  xix  7  f.; 
XX  •2.  8)  represent  a  contest  between  Enyalios  and  Achilles,  or  for  connecting  them 
in  any  way  with  the  story  of  the  killing  of  Thersites  by  Achilles  in  the  Aithiopis. 
Achilles  was  worshipped  elsewhere  in  connection  with  athletic  practices  (cf.  Pausanias, 
VI  23.  3;  also  the  Apd/xas  'Ax'XX^wj  mentioned  by  Arrian,  Peripl.  21.  i),  probably  for 
the  same  reason  that  worship  was  paid  to  famous  athletes  of  the  past  (cf.  Pindar,  Isth. 
vn  37,  59  ff.). 


300  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

But  what  shall  we  say  with  regard  to  the  suitors  of 
Penelope^?  The  argument  may  not  be  a  sound  one,  but  it 
is  not  easy  to  see  under  what  conditions  historical  names 
could  have  been  preserved  in  such  a  connection.  And  again, 
what  about  the  numerous  names  which  figure  in  the  dvBpo- 
KTaaiat  ?  Even  though  many  of  the  names  do  recur  again 
and  again,  their  number  is  surprising"-^.  It  is  difficult  to  doubt 
that  the  poets  gave  free  rein  to  their  inventive  faculties  in  such 
scenes. 

But  what  limits  are  we  to  set  to  this  process  }  If  we  regard 
the  chief  heroes  themselves  as  products  of  fiction  we  shall  be 
involved  in  much  the  same  difficulties  as  if  we  interpreted  the 
story  as  a  whole  in  this  way.  In  a  sense  indeed  the  difficulties 
will  be  increased  ;  for  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  a  heroic 
story  should  come  into  existence  without  heroes^  No  one  can 
reasonably   doubt  that    the    list   of  Phaeacian   athletes   is   the 


^  Curiously  enough  the  most  suspicious  names  are  those  of  the  two  chief  characters, 
'Eii/p'ufj.axos  son  of  XliXv/Sos,  and  'AvtIvoos  son  of  'Eivirdd-r^s. 

-  Under  the  head  of  fiction  I  think  we  may  probably  include  many  national 
names  and  names  derived  from  cities,  rivers,  etc.  It  has  been  remarked  above 
(p.  268,  note)  that  these  names  occur  chiefly  among  the  Trojans  and  their  allies, 
e.g.  Tpwj  (son  of  Alastor),  AdpSayos  (son  of  Bias),  Mi;75a;j',  'AaKdvioi,  Ap6o\p,  A6\o\f/, 
Tevdpas,  n^5atos,"IyUj3/)toj,  'Idaios,  ^Kafj.di'5pios,  Qr]^aios,  Qv/jL^paios.  I  do  not  mean 
of  course  to  suggest  that  all  such  names  are  necessarily  fictitious.  The  type  doubtless 
was  ancient,  but  it  possessed  obvious  facilities  for  the  formation  of  names  for  fictitious 
characters  of  foreign  nationality. 

*  This  point  seems  to  me  to  be  of  fundamental  importance  ;  but  it  is  apparently 
not  always  recognised.  Prof.  Meyer  {.Geschichte  des  Alterthums,  11  p.  207)  holds, 
rightly  as  I  think,  that  there  is  no  valid  reason  for  doubting  that  Troy  actually  was 
destroyed  by  a  king  of  Mycenae.  Yet  elsewhere  {ib.,  p.  186  f.,  etc.)  he  regards 
Agamemnon  himself  as  a  Spartan  deity  and  most  of  the  other  chief  Achaean  heroes 
as  mythical  or  fictitious  or  at  least  unconnected  originally  with  the  story  of  Troy. 
According  to  my  view  the  interest  in  heroic  poetry,  Greek  as  well  as  Teutonic,  Welsh 
or  Servian,  was  from  the  beginning  essentially  bound  up  with  individual  characters, 
e.g.  not  with  a  (nameless)  king  of  Mycenae — which  is  comparatively  seldom  men- 
tioned (cf.  p.  274) — but  with  King  Agamemnon.  It  is  true  that  under  certain 
conditions  one  name  occasionally  does  displace  another  in  heroic  stories ;  but  we 
have  seen  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  conditions  favourable  to  such  changes 
ever  prevailed  in  the  history  of  Greek  heroic  poetry.  Neither  the  name  ' AyafxAfxvojv 
nor  the  later  references  to  Zei/s  'Aya/i^fipuv  seem  to  me  to  afford  any  valid  ground 
for  doubting  that  Agamemnon  was  the  king  of  Mycenae  originally  concerned  in  the 
story. 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  3OI 

invention  of  one  man\  In  the  case  of  Penelope's  suitors  this  is 
not  so  clear.  Yet  personally  I  cannot  understand  the  Odyssey 
if  it  is  not,  in  its  present  form,  largely  the  work  of  an  individual 
brain,  however  much  it  may  have  utilised  and  even  incorporated 
older  matter.  This  '  redactor'  or  '  author  '  or  whatever  he  may 
be  called  may  well  have  invented  the  names  of  most  of  the 
suitors  ;  they  are  not  essential  to  the  story.  But  how  can  any 
such  explanation  be  applied  to  the  heroes  of  the  siege  of  Troy  ? 
These  were  not  obscure  chieftains  in  a  distant  group  of  islands 
without  external  connections.  Many  of  them  are  represented 
as  rulers  of  what  were  once  certainly  the  chief  states  in  Greece, 
and  they  were  universally  recognised  as  historical  persons  from 
the  earliest  times  of  which  we  have  any  record.  In  some  cases 
they  were  even  honoured  with  worship,  and  distinguished 
families  claimed  to  be  descended  from  them.  Mythical  char- 
acters, such  as  Scyld  or  Dardanos,  may  come  to  be  regarded 
as  historical.  But  these  are  products  of  many  minds  rather  than 
of  one,  and  of  reflection  rather  than  imagination.  Their  personi- 
fication is  a  gradual  process,  and  even  when  it  is  accomplished 
they  figure  only  in  the  background  of  heroic  stories,  without  any 
definite  individual  characterisation.  The  hypothesis  which  we 
are  now  testing  has  no  relation  to  such  figures  as  these — for 
Agamemnon,  Achilles  and  their  companions  are  not  eponymous 
heroes.  If  they  are  creations  of  one  man's  imagination  we 
must  ask  how  this  person,  however  gifted  he  may  have  been, 
succeeded  in  passing  off  his  romance  as  history.  On  the  other 
hand  if  they  were  gradually  '  evolved '  by  a  succession  of  poets 
we  must  ask  at  what  stage  and  by  what  process  so  great  a 
misunderstanding  of  their  real  character  originated. 

It  is  a  great  assumption  that  every  local  record  relating  to 
the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  War  owes  its  origin,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  the  influence  of  Homeric  poetry  ;  and  yet  that  is 
what  is   involved   by  the  hypothesis  under  discussion.     There 

^  Note  should  be  taken  also  of  the  fact  that  the  peculiar  type  of  nomenclature 
which  we  find  among  the  Phaeacians  (cf.  p.  299)  is  not  confined  to  the  list  of  athletes 
but  spread  over  the  whole  of  this  section  of  the  poem.  It  is  quite  possible  of  course 
that  the  few  exceptional  names,  such  as  'AXkIvoos,  may  be  derived  from  tradition  or 
from  an  earlier  poet. 


302  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

is  no  doubt  that  heroic  poetry  can  influence  local  tradition  in 
an  age  given  to  antiquarian  speculation  ;  but  where  shall  we 
find  any  parallel  for  such  a  result  as  this?  Pausanias  (ll  i6.  5) 
states  that  the  tombs  of  Agamemnon  and  his  household  were 
to  be  seen  at  Mycenae.  It  is  likely  enough  that  in  this  case 
the  local  belief  was  derived  ultimately  from  the  poems,  although 
it  seems  to  have  contained  some  unorthodox  features.  But  in 
Pindar,  Aeschylus  and  other  early  poets  we  find  forms  of  the 
story  which  differ  much  more  widely  from  the  Homeric 
account.  These  authorities  also  give  us  a  good  deal  of  in- 
formation regarding  other  members  of  the  family,  Pelops,  Atreus 
and  Orestes — persons  who  seem  not  to  have  figured  prominently 
in  any  Homeric  poems  that  we  know  of.  Particularly  we  should 
notice  that  according  to  Pausanias  (ill  19.  5)  the  Spartans  also 
possessed  a  tomb  of  Agamemnon  (at  Amyclai),  and  that  in 
early  times  they  appear  to  have  claimed  him  as  one  of  their 
own  kings.  To  this  we  have  already  referred  (p.  240).  The 
problem  as  a  whole  is  surely  one  which  requires  considerably 
more  investigation  than  it  has  yet  received.  But  I  should  be 
much  surprised  if  such  investigations,  carried  out  in  an  impartial 
spirit,  did  not  bring  to  light  many  traces  of  stories  relating  to 
the  Heroic  Age,  which  were  independent  of  anything  that  we 
may  fairly  call  '  Homeric  '  poetry. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  we  can  safely  claim  a  fictitious 
origin  for  some  of  the  leading  characters  without  committing 
ourselves  to  the  view  that  all  of  them  were  sprung  from  this 
source.  The  case  of  Agamemnon,  which  we  have  mentioned 
above,  is  scarcely  one  of  the  most  promising.  We  will  now 
take  what  is  generally  regarded  as  the  most  certain  case,  namely 
that  of  Aias^  There  are  two  heroes  of  this  name,  of  whom  one 
is  a  Locrian,  while  the  other  belongs  to  Salamis.  The  theory 
now  most  usually  held  is  that  one  of  the  two — preferably  the 
latter — is  a  fictitious  character,  derived  from  the  other.  This 
theory  rests  on  the  following  arguments :  (i)  that  the  two  heroes 
are  often  found  together,  (ii)  that  Salamis  is  only  mentioned 
in  two  passages,  (iii)  that,  apart  from  his  brother  Teucros,  the 

^  Cf.  Robert,  Studien  zur  Ilias,  p.  406  fT. ;  Bethe,  N.Jahrb.,  xin  p.  iff.;  Cauer, 
Grundfragen^,  p.  197  ff. 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  3O3 

connections  of  Aias  of  Salamis  are  themselves  obviously 
fictitious.  The  distinctive  characteristic  of  this  Aias  is  his 
enormous  shield  ;  and  this  gave  birth  both  to  the  name  of 
his  father  TeXafjLcov  ('  Strap'),  and  to  that  of  his  son,  EvpvadK7]<i 
{'  Broad-shield ').  The  appropriateness  of  the  latter  name  is 
evident  enough  ;  but  it  does  not  occur  in  the  Homeric  poems. 
The  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  this  person  is  a  genea- 
logical creation  of  much  later  times — possibly  due  to  the 
misunderstanding  of  an  epithet.  On  the  other  hand  the  force 
of  the  name  TeXa/jbcov  does  not  strike  me  as  particularly  obvious. 
Aias'  distinguishing  characteristic  was  not  his  shield-strap,  but 
the  shield  itself  Several  heroes,  Agamemnon,  Diomedes  and 
others,  are  said  to  have  shield-straps ;  indeed  from  II.  11  388  f. 
we  may  infer  that  they  were  commonly,  if  not  generally,  used. 
Moreover  the  word  reXaficov  does  not  necessarily  mean  '  shield- 
strap';  we  find  it  used  also,  in  several  passages,  for  'sword-strap.' 
Its  original  meaning  appears  to  have  been  'supporter' ;  and  we 
have  no  reason  for  supposing  that  such  a  word  was  inadmissible 
as  a  proper  name^  Again,  the  argument  that  Salamis  is  only 
mentioned  twice  loses  its  force  when  the  general  usage  of  the 
Iliad  is  taken  into  account.  Except  in  three  cases — due  largely 
to  certain  stereotyped  formulae — it  is  not  customary  to  refer  to 
the  home  or  nationality  of  the  Achaean  leaders'^.  Even  if  the 
genuineness  of  II.  Vll  199  be  doubted,  there  can  scarcely  be  any 
question  that  Aias  was  localised  at  Salamis  by  the  time  when 
the  Homeric  poems  first  obtained  general  currency  in  Greece ; 
for  the  post-Homeric  (or  non-Homeric)  genealogy  of  the 
Aiacidai  and  their  connection  with  Aegina  go  back  probably 
beyond  the  seventh  century.  There  remains  then  only  the  fact 
that  two  friends  and  colleagues  have  the  same  name.     That  is 

^  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  as  a  patronymic  Te\a/uc6i'toy  is  an  Aeolic  formation. 
The  rareness  of  forms  of  this  type  renders  it  highly  improbable  that  a  nickname  thus 
formed  should  have  been  misinterpreted  as  a  patronymic.  As  a  nickname  too  should 
we  not  rather  have  expected  TeXaixuve^i  ? 

''  Two  passages  mention  AoKpoL  in  connection  with  the  other  Aias  ;  three  mention 
'IddKrj  or  Ke^aXX^^'es  in  connection  with  Odysseus.  "Zir&prri  and  AaKeSalfiwv  are  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  Menelaos  only  in  the  Catalogue.  References  to  Eurybates 
and  Helen  are  of  course  not  included  here.  The  only  leading  Achaean  heroes  whose 
home  or  nationality  is  frequently  mentioned  are  Achilles,  Nestor  and  Idomeneus. 


304  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

doubtless  a  curious  coincidence ;  but  not  more  curious  than 
many  such  cases  which  occur  in  real  life.  On  the  whole  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  the  readiness  with  which  this  theory- 
has  been  received  is  due  to  the  prevalent  enthusiasm  for  such 
hypotheses.  When  soberly  considered  the  evidence  in  its  favour 
is  of  the  slightest. 

In  conclusion  we  must  take  account  of  another  hypothesis, 
which  seems  to  be  particularly  popular  at  present — namely  that 
many  characters  have  been  attracted  into  the  Trojan  cycle  from 
different  quarters,  some  from  other  cycles  of  heroic  poetry,  and 
some  from  local  tradition.  Strictly  speaking  we  have  here  to 
do  with  two  different  hypotheses  ;  but  they  may  conveniently 
be  taken  together.  Both  are  credible  enough  under  certain 
conditions.  In  the  first  place  we  must  assume  the  existence  of 
a  nucleus  of  original  matter  sufficient  to  provide  the  '  attractive ' 
force.  Secondly,  the  poets'  audience  must  not  have  such  know- 
ledge either  of  the  original  or  the  subsidiary  stories  as  would 
check  their  readiness  to  allow  the  amalgamation.  Thus  no 
audience  of  the  fifth  century  would  have  consented  to  see 
Heracles  introduced  into  a  drama  dealing  with  Orestes.  But 
medieval  German  poems  do  bring  Dietrich  von  Bern  into  as- 
sociation both  with  Attila  and  Eormenric,  although  we  know 
that  the  three  heroes  belonged  originally  to  quite  distinct 
stories.  This  parallel  has  frequently  been  urged  in  support 
of  the  contention  that  Agamemnon  or  Nestor  or  Idomeneus 
may  once  have  belonged  to  separate  stories  before  they  were 
associated  with  Achilles  or  Aias  the  Locrian  or  whoever  it  was 
who  was  first  connected  with  the  siege  of  Troy. 

In  Chapter  XI  we  discussed  the  supposed  analogy  between 
Homeric  and  medieval  German  poetry  and  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  had  no  foundation.  The  roots  of  the  latter 
doubtless  go  back  to  court-poetry.  But  for  centuries  it  was 
preserved  only  by  popular  minstrels  ;  and  during  this  period 
it  underwent  not  only  a  process  of  disintegration  in  regard  to 
subject-matter,  but  also  a  complete  change  both  in  spirit  and 
metrical  form.  Our  discussion  led  us  to  conclude  that  there 
was  no  ground  for  supposing  the  Homeric  poems  to  have 
passed  through    such   a   stage   as   this — that   on  the   contrary 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC   POEMS  305 

they  appear  to  have  been  preserved  by  court  poets  until  they 
attained  their  final  form.  But  heroic  court-poetry  is  everywhere 
bound  by  convention.  The  poet  must  be  a  master  of  traditional 
lore  as  well  as  of  form ;  but  he  must  not  be  a  revolutionary. 
He  may  borrow  descriptions,  incidents,  probably  also  minor 
characters,  from  other  stories  and  even  from  folk-tales — especially 
when  he  is  dealing  with  the  adventures  of  a  solitary  wanderer 
in  unknown  lands^  But,  since  his  audience  likewise  consists 
of  persons  who  are  more  or  less  trained  in  the  same  kind  of 
lore,  he  will  find  considerable  difficulty  in  transferring  a 
well-known  hero  from  one  story  to  another — more  difficulty 
indeed  than  in  inventing  the  hero  outright.  He  would 
probably  have  just  about  as  much  chance  of  success  as  a 
modern  dramatist  who  wished  to  introduce  Cromwell  into  a 
serious  play  dealing  with  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  We  must 
have  good  evidence  before  we  can  believe  that  the  court 
poets  of  ancient  Greece  were  able  to  indulge  in  such  flights 
of  imagination. 

But  no  such  evidence  appears  to  be  forthcoming-.  One  of 
the  cases  most  commonly  cited  is  the  fight  of  Tlepolemos  and 
Sarpedon.  This  case  rests  partly  on  the  fact  that  the  two 
combatants  are  represented  as  coming  from  districts,  both  re- 
mote from  Troy  but  not  very  distant  from  one  another,  and 
partly  on  the  groundless  assumption  that  opponents  must  be 
near  neighbours.  Unfortunately  Sarpedon  himself  is  killed  by 
Patroclos,  a  hero  from  Phthiotis.  To  meet  this  difficulty  we 
find  a  further  hypothesis,  which  need  not  be  discussed  here. 
I  do  not  say  that  it  is  impossible  that  Tlepolemos  and  Sarpedon 
have  been  taken  from  a  different  story.    My  view  is  that  until  it 

^  Foi  folk-tales  cf.  p.  258  fF.  The  same  conditions  are  probably  favourable  both  to 
transference  and  invention.  The  latter  faculty  is  perhaps  first  displayed  in  lists  of 
supernatural  beings,  such  as  those  of  the  Nereids  in  II.  xviii  39  ff.  and  Theog. 
242  ff.  (which  differ  a  good  deal).  We  may  compare  the  list  of  dwarfs  given  in 
Voluspa. 

2  We  need  not  discuss  the  identification  of  the  Adrestos  and  Amphios  of  II.  Ii  830 
with  the  famous  Adrastos  and  Amphiaraos  of  the  Theban  story  (cf.  Usener,  S.-B.  der 
Akad,  zu  Wien,  1898,  p.  37  ff.).  The  strangest  feature  in  this  'discovery'  is  the 
fascination  which,  in  spite  of  its  obvious  untenability,  it  seems  to  have  exercised  on 
subsequent  writers. 


306  FICTION    IN   THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

is  supported  by  evidence^  such  a  conjecture  does  not  deserve 
serious  consideration.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  case  of 
Idomeneus  which  has  likewise  been  cited  in  this  connection. 
Indeed  it  is  surely  a  fatal  objection  to  this  hypothesis  as  a 
whole  that,  with  one  exception 2,  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad  are 
persons  who  are  known  practically  only  in  connection  with  the 
siege  of  Troy.  The  force  of  this  objection  may  be  appreciated 
by  the  fact  that  both  poems  contain  many  incidental  allusions 
to  heroes  who  are  well  known  to  us  from  other  sources,  as  well 
as  to  persons  of  whom  we  know  little  or  nothing  at  all.  If  the 
personnel  of  the  Iliad  has  really  grown  up  through  a  process  of 
attraction  how  is  it  that  Heracles,  lason,  Peirithoos,  Theseus, 
Minos  and  Adrastos  have  not  been  drawn  into  the  net  ?  Some 
of  them  certainly  have  sons  or  grandsons  who  figure  in  the 
Iliad  ;  but  it  deserves  to  be  remarked  that,  with  the  exception 
of  Idomeneus,  these  are  all  persons  of  little  importance.  On 
the  other  hand  the  fathers  of  the  principal  heroes  are  themselves 
in  no  case — unless  we  count  Tydeus — '  heroes  of  the  first  rank.' 
Can  any  one  seriously  argue  that  such  a  result  as  this  would  be 
produced  by  an  artificial  scheme — a  scheme,  that  is  to  say,  in 
the  framing  of  which  poets  had  a  free  command  of  their 
material .''      On  the  contrary  the  only  conclusion,  I   think,  to 

^  The  evidence  of  the  grave-mound  in  Lycia,  cited  by  Prof.  Murray  {Rise  of  the 
Greek  Epic,  p.  191,  note),  can  hardly  be  taken  seriously.  Indeed  Prof.  Murray 
himself  seems  to  consider  Sarpedon's  Lycian  connections  at  least  as  illusory  as  his 
connection  with  Troy. 

^  Diomedes  no  doubt  figured  in  the  story  of  the  second  attack  upon  Thebes.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  this  hero  was  also  originally  identical  with  the  Bistonian 
Diomedes,  who  fed  his  mares  with  human  flesh  and  was  killed  by  Heracles.  The 
value  of  this  identification  depends  largely  upon  the  question  whether  the  Doloneia 
formed  an  original  part  of  the  story  of  the  Iliad.  That  is  a  view  which  would 
probably  gain  the  assent  of  few  scholars — even  of  those  who  believe  that  the  Doloneia 
is  not  much  later  than  the  rest  of  the  Iliad  in  its  final  form.  The  other  arguments 
are  of  little  consequence.  Diomedes  displays  a  propensity  for  capturing  chariots — 
a  feature  which  perhaps  gave  rise  to  the  adventure  with  Rhesos ;  but  the  same  remark 
is  true  of  Antilochos.  He  fights  also  with  the  '  Thracian '  god  Ares,  as  well  as  with 
Aphrodite.  But  it  is  clear  that  the  feud  with  these  deities  really  belongs  to  Athene, 
Diomedes'  hereditary  guardian.  In  later  stories,  relating  to  the  east  of  Italy,  there 
may  have  been  a  confusion  between  the  two  heroes ;  and  it  is  scarcely  impossible 
that  here  and  there  Diomedes  of  Argos  took  over  a  cult  belonging  to  his  namesake. 
If  so  we  shall  have  to  suppose  that  the  Bistonian  Diomedes  was  originally  an  Illyrian 
rather  than  a  Thracian  hero. 


XIV]  FICTION    IN   THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  307 

which  an  unbiassed  study  of  the  evidence  can  lead,  is  that 
the  poets  never  enjoyed  such  freedom  ;  that  the  later  poets 
were  bound  by  the  work  of  their  predecessors,  and  these  again 
by  something  which  bears  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  facts  of 
real  life. 

In  the  course  of  this  and  the  preceding  chapters  we  have 
reviewed  briefly  a  number  of  hypotheses  which  have  been 
brought  forward  from  time  to  time  with  the  object  of  ex- 
plaining the  origin  of  the  characters  and  events  treated  in 
the  Homeric  poems.  These  hypotheses  may  be  grouped 
summarily  under  four  headings :  (i)  nature-myths,  (ii)  tribal 
heroes,  (iii)  fiction,  (iv)  transference.  In  dealing  with  the 
first  group  we  have  restricted  ourselves  to  the  consideration 
of  two  cases  which  appear  as  yet  not  to  have  fallen  into  the 
same  discredit  as  the  rest.  Our  conclusion  however  is  that 
they  rest  on  equally  unsubstantial  foundations.  The  second 
group  is  more  popular  just  now,  and  this  we  have  examined 
at  length.  We  find  that — apart  from  some  genealogical  names — 
this  group  of  hypotheses  rests  upon  a  number  of  assumptions, 
some  of  which  are  incapable  of  proof,  while  others  are  demon- 
strably incorrect.  The  third  group  has  a  much  better  case. 
We  find  that  the  use  of  fiction  appears  to  be  shown  not  only 
in  the  presentation  of  the  stories  (as  in  Teutonic  poetry)  but 
also  in  the  invention  of  minor  characters.  The  extent  to  which 
it  is  used  is  a  problem  which  requires  further  investigation.  The 
last  remark  applies  also  to  the  fourth  group.  In  principle  it  is 
only  reasonable  to  expect  that  both  characters  and  incidents 
may  have  been  transferred  from  one  story  to  another.  But 
the  instances  which  have  been  suggested  are  tainted  with  the 
*  tribal  hero '  hypothesis  and  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest  is 
altogether  inconclusive.  Lastly,  we  have  noted  that,  if  our  view 
of  the  history  of  Homeric  poetry  is  correct,  the  use  of  both 
fiction  (invention)  and  '  transference '  must  have  been  confined 
within  certain  limits^ 

1  The  most  highly  developed  use  of  fiction  occurs  probably  when  the  poets  are 
dealing  with  unknown  regions  or  peoples,  as  in  the  story  of  Odysseus  (cf.  p.  297  f.). 
But  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  any  evidence  for  the  existence  of  poems  on  wholly 
fictitious  subjects. 


308  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

It  may  perhaps  be  said  that  these  conclusions  show  an 
inadequate  recognition  of  the  results  attained  by  modern  in- 
vestigations in  the  history  of  Greek  heroic  tradition.  But  we 
may  fairly  ask  how  many  definite  results  have  been  attained 
in  this  field — results,  I  mean,  which  command  the  unanimous 
approval,  or  anything  like  the  unanimous  approval,  of  present- 
day  scholars.  It  is  a  common  opinion,  at  least  in  this  country, 
that  the  general  effect  has  been  rather  to  obscure  than  to  solve 
the  real  problems  presented  by  the  poems.  If  we  put  aside  the 
opinions  of  more  conservative  scholars  we  may  indeed  find  a 
common  element — namely  the  belief  that  the  attitude  of  the 
ancients  themselves  to  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age  was  mistaken. 
But  this  belief  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  result  established  by  the 
investigations ;  it  is  rather  their  starting  point. 

By  '  the  ancients '  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  poets  and 
mythographers  of  antiquity.  It  is  admitted  that  "  the  basis  of 
fact  in  Homer  is  fully  as  real  to  Thucydides  as  to  Herodotus." 
Now  the  work  undertaken  by  Thucydides  was  not  a  history  of 
the  Trojan  War ;  but  he  had  evidently  considered  that  story. 
Apparently  it  did  not  occur  to  him  to  doubt  that  the  war  had 
taken  place,  or  even  that  the  expedition  had  been  commanded 
by  Agamemnon,  king  of  Mycenae.  What  he  had  reflected  on 
was  the  question  whether  the  expedition  was  really  on  so  large 
a  scale  as  is  stated  in  the  Iliad ;  and  the  result  to  which  his 
reflections  brought  him  was  that  there  was  not  a  sufficient  case 
for  scepticism  (ovkovv  d-jno-relv  elico^).  We  are  at  liberty  to  form 
a  different  opinion.  Yet  Thucydides  was  a  man  no  whit  inferior 
intellectually  to  the  best  of  modern  scholars.  Moreover  he  had 
the  advantage  of  being  a  native ;  and  he  was  separated  from 
the  Heroic  Age  by  some  six  centuries,  whereas  we  are  separated 
from  it  by  nearly  thirty.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  many 
sources  of  information  were  open  to  him — traditions,  poems  and 
even  monuments — which  are  entirely  lost  to  us.  It  seems  to  me 
therefore  that  before  we  disregard  the  opinions  of  such  persons 
we  shall  do  well  to  consider  carefully  in  what  respects  we  are 
better  qualified  for  forming  a  judgment. 

So  far  as  I  can  see  we  have  the  advantage  in  two  respects 
only.    Firstly,  there  is  the  evidence  of  the  Egyptian  monuments 


I 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  309 

and  of  that  pre-historic  Aegean  civilisation  which  has  been  re- 
vealed to  us  by  the  discoveries  of  Schliemann,  Dorpfeld,  Evans, 
Halbherr  and  many  others.  It  is  at  least  improbable  that 
Thucydides  was  as  well  acquainted  with  either  of  these  sources 
of  information  as  we  are.  If  he  had  seen  Dr  Dorpfeld's  ex- 
cavations at  Troy  he  might  perhaps  have  modified  his  opinion 
about  the  numbers  of  the  Achaean  army,  although  he  had 
noted  the  dimensions  of  Mycenae.  But  that  after  all  is  a 
trifle.  Can  it  be  said  that  the  general  effect  of  the  new  evidence 
has  been  to  discredit  the  tradition.-*  The  records  of  Rameses  II 
and  his  successors  have  definitely  disposed  of  the  idea  that 
Agamemnon's  expedition  was  anything  impossible,  while  the 
discoveries  in  Crete  have  shown  once  for  all  that  '  early '  does 
not  mean  the  same  thing  as  '  primitive.'  It  is  a  significant  fact 
therefore  that  in  many  investigations-  of  the  type  we  are  dis- 
cussing little  or  no  use  has  been  made  of  this  new  evidence. 
The  evidence  on  which  they  rely  is  evidence  which  was  at  least 
as  accessible  to  Thucydides  as  it  is  to  us. 

Secondly,  it  is  in  our  power,  probably  far  more  than  it  was 
in  that  of  Thucydides  and  his  contemporaries,  to  compare  the 
Homeric  stories  with  others  of  the  same  type.  It  is  here  that 
our  great  advantage  lies.  But  can  it  be  said  that  this  advantage 
has  been  turned  to  account  by  modern  writers  ?  Many  works 
contain  no  reference  to  any  poetry  other  than  Greek  and  Latin — 
the  latter  of  which,  owing  to  its  dependence  upon  Greek,  is  of 
little  value  for  our  purpose.  Many  others,  it  is  true,  have  used 
the  evidence  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry.  But  only  by  taking 
a  single  poem  belonging  to  the  latest  stratum,  without  reference 
to  its  history  or  its  connections  in  the  poetry  of  other  Teutonic 
peoples,  and  by  using  precarious  hypotheses  as  to  the  origin  of 
the  story  as  a  foundation  for  similar  hypotheses  in  relation  to  the 
Homeric  stories.  The  earlier  strata  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry 
have  been  ignored  as  much  as  the  heroic  poetry  of  other  European 
peoples. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  much  which  is  obscure  in  Homeric 
poetry  and  tradition  may  be  illuminated  by  a  historical  study 
of  heroic  poetry  elsewhere — not  merely  Teutonic  but  also  Celtic, 
Slavonic  and  even  non-European.     For  the  story  of  the  Iliad  in 


310  FICTION    IN    THE   HOMERIC    POEMS  [CHAP. 

particular  I  suspect  that  a  fairly  close  parallel — perhaps  the 
closest  of  all — is  to  be  found  in  those  Servian  poems  which 
deal  with  the  battle  of  Kossovo^  My  object  however  in  this 
book  is  to  bring  to  light  the  relations  of  Greek  and  Teutonic 
heroic  poetry — or  rather  to  make  a  start  in  that  direction,  for 
the  object  is  by  no  means  one  which  can  be  accomplished  in  a 
single  attempt.  So  much  however  may  be  said  with  confidence 
even  now :  all  that  we  know,  apart  from  hypotheses,  with  regard 
to  the  origin  of  the  Teutonic  heroic  stories  corresponds  to  the 
views  held  by  Thucydides  and  his  contemporaries. 

With  the  affinities  between  Homeric  poetry  and  the  old 
Teutonic  court-poetry  we  shall  have  to  deal  in  the  next  chapter. 
I  do  not  think  that  any  true  analogy  to  the  medieval  German 
poems  is  to  be  found  in  Greek  literature  ;  but  I  have  ventured 
to  suggest  (p.  239  f.)  that  the  poems  of  the  Edda  have  something 
in  common  with  those  of  Stesichoros  and  his  followers.  Apart 
from  the  poems  however,  Greek  literature  preserves  numerous 
records  of  the  Heroic  Age,  frequently,  though  not  always,  in  the 
form  of  local  traditions.  Some  of  these  are  doubtless  due  to  the 
influence  of  Homeric  or  '  Stesichoric '  poetry ;  but  we  have  no 
right  to  assume  that  this  is  universally  true.  There  are  a 
number  which  appear  to  be  of  popular  origin,  whether  they 
come  from  poems  of  Stage  III  (cf  p.  94  ff.)  or  from  poems 
which  were  '  popular '  from  the  beginning  or  from  stories  which 
never  were  clothed  in  poetic  form. 

As  an  example  we  will  take  the  story  of  Minos.  So  far  as 
I  know,  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  hero  figured  prominently 
in  any  early  poems  of  which  we  have  record,  though  incidental 
allusions  to  him  occur  both  in  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey.  Yet 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Greeks  regarded  him  as  one  of  the 
very  greatest  figures  of  the  far  past.  The  most  striking  tradition 
recorded  of  him  is  that  he  possessed  a  powerful  fleet,  which 
enabled  him  to  subdue  the  islands,  to  put  down  piracy  and  thus 
to  secure  safety  for  navigation.  This  thalassocracy  is  mentioned 
both  by  Herodotus  (I  171,  ill  122)  and  Thucydides  (l  4,  8) ;  and 
the  former  adds  that  no  such  attempt  to  command  the  sea  was 
made  again  until  the  time  of  Polycrates  of  Samos,  in  the  latter 

'  On  this  subject  see  Note  VII. 


XIV]  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  3 II 

part  of  the  sixth  century.  Later  writers  relate  the  famous  story 
of  the  Minotaur ;  they  represent  Minos  also  as  the  founder  of 
cities,  including  Cnossos  and  Phaistos,  the  great  prehistoric 
palaces  lately  excavated,  and  as  a  legislator  or  judge.  In  what 
is  commonly  regarded  as  one  of  the  latest  additions  to  the 
Odyssey  (XI  568  fif.)  we  find  him  giving  judgments  among 
the  dead. 

It  is  obvious  enough  that  the  story  of  Minos  contains  many 
mythical  features.  But  do  these  features  constitute  the  original 
kernel  of  the  story,  or  are  they  accretions,  due  to  folk-tales  or 
popular  belief?  We  need  not  enter  here  into  the  story  of  the 
Minotaur,  upon  which  Dr  Evans'  discoveries  have  thrown  such 
a  curious  light.  But  there  are  other  features  in  the  story  which 
may  be  illustrated  from  medieval  beliefs  regarding  Dietrich  von 
Bern.  Sometimes  we  find  this  hero  represented  as  the  leader 
of  the  '  Wild  Hunt,'  the  army  of  ghosts^ — a  position  elsewhere 
occupied  by  Wodan  or  other  mythical  beings.  In  medieval 
German  homilies  and  other  religious  works  he  is  credited  with 
having  been  the  founder  of  several  famous  Roman  buildings, 
such  as  the  Amphitheatre  at  Verona  and  the  Castle  of  St  Angelo 
at  Rome ^.  In  such  beliefs  we  have  a  close  enough  parallel  to 
the  traditions  of  Minos.  There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that 
the  Greeks  were  better  acquainted  with  the  prehistoric  Cretans 
than  the  Germans  were  with  the  ancient  Romans.  In  both 
cases  doubtless  it  seemed  natural  to  attribute  the  foundation 
of  venerable  buildings  to  a  prominent  hero  of  their  own  race  I 

*  Cf.  J.  Grimm,  Teutonic  Mythology^  (Engl.  Transl.),  p.  936  f. 

^  Cf.  W.  Grimm,  Deutsche  Heldensage,  p.  40  (and  passim)  ;  J.  Grimm,  op.  cit., 
p.  1183. 

'  Prof.  Meyer  (Gesch.  d.  Alt.^^  I  p.  680  ff.)  has  pointed  out  that,  while  Thucydides 
seems  to  have  regarded  Minos  as  a  Greek,  Herodotus  apparently  held  a  different 
view.  Such  is  certainly  the  natural  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  language  of  the 
two  historians,  though  the  evidence  is  perhaps  not  quite  conclusive  in  either  case. 
But  Herodotus,  at  all  events  in  vii  171,  clearly  derived  his  information  from  the 
people  of  Praisos — a  community  which  cannot  have  been  wholly  Greek  even  in  his 
time.  Their  account  seems  to  have  been  due  to  an  attempt  to  reconcile  Greek  and 
native  traditions,  Homeric  influence  being  shown  by  the  sentence  Tplrri  he  yeveri  fiera 
Mivwa  TeKivrquavra  yeviffOai  tcl  Tpm'Kd,  k.t.\.  We  may  compare  the  Egyptian  story 
of  Helen  (cf.  p.  266).  In  the  Homeric  poems  themselves  Idomeneus  is  descended 
from  Minos,  and  no  hint  is  given  that  either  of  them  was  regarded  as  non-Greek.  The 
same  remark  appears  to  be  true  of  Greek  tradition  elsewhere. 


312  FICTION    IN    THE    HOMERIC   POEMS  [CHAP. 

But  Dietrich  von  Bern  (Theodric,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths)  was 
not  originally  a  mythical  being. 

Nor  need  the  tradition  of  Minos'  thalassocracy  be  regarded 
as  altogether  incredible.  We  have  seen  that  in  the  reigns  of 
Merenptah  and  Rameses  III  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  lands 
were  invaded  by  large  forces  from  the  Aegean  or  even  more 
remote  regions.  After  the  time  of  Rameses  III  we  hear  little 
of  these  peoples,  though  it  is  clear  that  they  had  formed  settle- 
ments on  the  coast  of  Palestine.  From  the  following  centuries 
we  have  apparently  only  one  detailed  piece  of  information 
relating  to  the  Mediterranean,  namely  the  story  of  a  certain 
Unuamen  (or  Wenamon),  an  official  belonging  to  the  temple 
of  Amen  at  Thebes,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  Lebanon  to  buy 
timber^  From  this  story  we  may  infer  with  some  probability 
that  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  was  policed  or  con- 
trolled by  the  fleets  of  some  Aegean  nation ^  The  time  to 
which  the  story  refers  is  either  the  reign  of  Herhor  or  that  of 
his  predecessor  Rameses  XI P — about  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century.  That  seems  to  be  approximately  the  time 
indicated  for  Minos  by  Greek  tradition ;  for  according  to  II. 
XIII  451  f.  and  Od.  xix  178  ff.  he  was  the  grandfather  of 
Idomeneus.  It  is  scarcely  impossible  that  an  ambitious  Greek 
prince  of  this  age  may  have  been  animated  by  the  desire  of 
regaining  the  supremacy  of  the  ancient  Cretans,  just  as  Theodric 
was  inspired  by  the  idea  of  restoring  under  Gothic  rule  the 
power  formerly  held  by  the  Roman  emperors. 

1  Cf.  Petrie,  History  of  Egypt,  in  197  ff. ;  Breasted,  Ancient  Records  [Egypt), 
IV  274  ff.  Prof.  Breasted  believes  that  this  document  is  Wenamon's  authentic  report 
of  his  expedition. 

^  In  the  course  of  an  adventurous  journey  the  envoy  was  intercepted  by  some 
ships  of  the  Zakar  (Tchakaray),  a  people  mentioned  among  the  Aegean  confederates 
who  fought  against  Rameses  III  (cf.  p.  188  ff.).  These  Zakar  brought  him  before 
the  prince  of  Byblos  and  demanded  that  he  shoul'd  be  arrested.  Prof.  Petrie  speaks 
of  them  as  Cretan  '  pirates,'  but  neither  their  own  behaviour  nor  that  of  the  prince 
seems  to  me  to  be  reconcilable  with  such  a  view.  According  to  Prof.  Breasted's 
reconstruction  of  the  story — where  the  papyrus  is  defective — the  envoy  had  himself 
been  guilty  of  lawless  conduct  previously.  Incidentally  it  appears  from  the  story 
that  a  considerable  amount  of  traffic  was  being  carried  on  at  this  time  both  in 
Egyptian  and  Syrian  ships. 

^  Herhor  is  mentioned  in  the  story,  but  not  as  king. 


XIV]  THE   BATTLE   OF   KOSSOVO  313 


NOTE  VII.  THE  BATTLE  OF  KOSSOVO 
IN  SERVIAN  POETRY. 

It  has  been  mentioned  above  (p.  310)  that  for  the  story  of  the  Ihad  a 
fairly  close  parallel  is  to  be  found  in  those  Servian  poems  which  deal  with 
the  battle  of  Kossovo^.  This  parallelism  has  long  been  noticed,  but  unfortu- 
nately it  has  given  rise  to  an  unnecessary  controversy.  Servian  writers, 
inspired  by  patriotic  zeal,  have  sought  to  make  an  'Iliad'  by  stringing  their 
national  poems  together,  while  scholars  of  other  nations  have  denied  that 
the  Servians  possess  anything  which  deserves  to  be  called  epic  poetry.  We 
need  not  concern  ourselves  here  with  a  discussion  about  terms.  It  is  clear 
enough  that  Servian  heroic  poetry  bears  little  resemblance  to  the  Homeric 
poems  as  we  have  them.  But  we  may  strongly  suspect  that  at  an  earlier 
stage  in  the  history  of  Homeric  poetry  the  resemblance  would  be  much 
closer,  although  the  art  of  heroic  poetry  in  Greece  had  doubtless  been 
elaborated  for  centuries  to  a  far  higher  degree  than  was  ever  attained  by 
Servian  poets. 

It  is  to  the  treatment  of  the  story  however,  and  not  to  the  qualities  of  the 
poetry,  that  I  wish  to  call  attention.  Beowulf,  Finn,  Waldhere  and  the 
Hildebrandslied  all  deal  with  fighting  of  various  kinds,  but  we  do  not  know 
how  early  Teutonic  poetry  treated  a  story  of  actual  war.  The  Servian 
poems  resemble  the  Iliad  chiefly  in  the  comparatively  large  number  of 
prominent  characters  which  they  introduce  and  in  the  fact  that  they  deal 
with  a  series  of  more  or  less  distinct  episodes,  in  which  various  heroes  from 
time  to  time  play  the  leading  part.  Lazar's  council  or  court  furnishes  an 
interesting  parallel  to  that  of  Agamemnon — the  more  instructive  because  we 
can  here  check  the  evidence  of  the  poems  by  historical  records,  some  of 
which  are  practically  contemporary,  while  many  date  from  within  a  century 
of  the  battle. 

King  Lazar  himself  and  his  opponent,  Sultan  Murad  I,  are  of  course 
well-known  historical  persons.  There  is  no  doubt  also  with  regard  to  Vuk 
Brankovic,  the  chief  of  Lazar's  followers  or  allies.  In  the  poems  he  is  repre- 
sented as  the  husband  of  Mara  (Maria),  the  king's  daughter  ;  but  in  this 
case  there  may  be  some  confusion.     According  to  Ducas  (p.  17^)  Lazar  had 

^  My  object  in  this  note  is  to  call  attention  to  a  subject  which  appears  to  have 
been  strangely  neglected  by  English  Homeric  students.  I  cannot  claim  to  possess  the 
requisite  qualifications,  linguistic  and  historical,  for  an  independent  investigation  of 
the  subject.  English  translations  of  many  of  the  poems  are  to  be  found,  together 
with  a  historical  introduction,  in  Mme  Mijatovich's  Kossovo  (London,  1881).  For 
a  more  critical  study  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  the  introduction  to  Pasic's  Narodne 
Pjesme  0  boju  na  Kosovu  godine  ijSg  (Agram,  1877),  to  which  I  am  much  indebted. 

^  The  references  to  Laonicos'  and  Ducas'  histories,  as  well  as  to  the  translation  of 
the  latter,  are  to  the  pages  in  Niebuhr's  edition.  It  may  be  that  Ducas  was  mistaken 
with  regard  to  the  name  of  Bajazet's  wife  ;  cf.  Engel,  Geschichte  von  Serwien,  p.  332. 


314  THE   BATTLE   OF   KOSSOVO  [CHAP. 

a  daughter  of  this  name  who  was  married  to  Bajazet,  the  son  and  successor 
of  Murad,  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  Vuk  Brankovic  was  however 
a  son-in-law  of  Lazar  according  to  Laonicos  Chalcocondylas  (p.  53).  Again, 
Jug  Bogdan,  represented  in  the  poems  as  Lazar's  father-in-law >,  is  believed 
to  be  identical  with  a  certain  prince  named  MTroybavos  (lloydavos),  who, 
according  to  Laonicos  (p.  28),  was  granted  by  Dusan  the  territories  between 
Pherrai  and  the  Axios  (Vardar),  and  who  about  1372  submitted  to  Murad 
together  with  the  other  Servian  princes  in  this  region.  To  these  we  may 
add  the  vojvoda  Vladeta  ;  for  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  person  is  to 
be  identified  with  that  Vlathico  Vlagenichio  who,  according  to  the  anonymous 
translation  of  Ducas'  history  (p.  352),  was  sent  by  his  uncle  luathco  (Tvrtko), 
king  of  Bosnia,  to  support  Lazar  with  20,000  men. 

On  the  other  hand  some  doubt  has  been  e.xpressed  with  regard  to  Milos 
Obilic  (or  Kobilovic)  the  chief  Servian  hero  of  the  story.  He  is  not  men- 
tioned apparently  by  any  strictly  contemporary  authority.  Yet  the  traditional 
account  of  Murad's  death  is  known  to  the  two  Greek  historians  Ducas  and 
Laonicos,  both  of  whom  are  believed  to  have  written  within  about  three 
quarters  of  a  century  after  the  battle.  The  latter  (p.  54)  states  that  accord- 
ing to  the  Greek  version  of  the  story  a  Servian  nobleman  named  Mt)Xois 
rode  fully  armed  into  the  Turkish  camp,  representing  himself  to  be  a 
deserter.  Murad  gave  orders  that  he  was  to  be  allowed  to  come  near  and 
say  what  he  wished.  But  when  he  reached  the  door  of  the  Sultan's  tent  he 
threw  his  spear  and  slew  Murad,  meeting  with  his  own  death  immediately 
afterwards.  Laonicos  however  also  says  that  the  Turks  gave  quite  a  different 
account  of  the  affair — namely  that  as  Murad  was  pursuing  the  enemy  a 
Servian  {av8pa  Tpi/3aXX6i/),  who  was  on  foot,  turned  and  transfixed  him  with 
a  javelin.  Ducas'  version  of  the  story  (p.  15)  resembles  that  given  by  the 
poems  in  the  fact  that  the  assassin  uses  a  dagger.  His  name  is  not  given, 
but  he  is  said  to  have  been  a  young  and  distinguished  Servian  and  to  have 
asked  to  see  Murad  as  a  deserter  with  important  information. 

Closer  aflfinity  with  the  poems  is  shown  by  the  anonymous  translation  of 
Ducas'  history  (p.  352  ff.),  which  contains  much  additional  matter.  Indeed 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt  that  the  additions  are  partly  derived  from 
poems,  though  these  may  not  have  been  exactly  identical  with  any  which 
are  now  extant.  When  Milos  ('Milos  Cobilichio,  capetanio  de  Lazaro') 
reaches  the  Sultan's  tent  we  are  told,  as  in  the  poems 2,  that  he  is  bidden  to 

^  I  do  not  know  whether  this  is  historically  correct.  There  seem  to  be  a  number 
of  historical  references  to  Milica,  Lazar's  queen;  cf.  Engel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  311, 
.=531.  .S46f. 

*  Cf.  Pasic,  op.  cit.,  vi  v.  13  fif.  (p.  92).  This  passage  is  taken  from  a  Croatian 
poem  (Nr  6,  v.  166  ff.)  published  by  Miklosich,  Denkschriften  d.  k.  Akademie 
d.  Wissenscha/ten  (Vienna),  xix  p.  73  fif.,  from  a  MS.  collection  at  Ragusa  dating 
from  about  1728.  Mme  Mijatovich's  poem  on  the  same  subject  (p.  120  ff.)  differs 
a  good  deal  from  this  and  bears  a  closer  resemblance  to  the  Italian  in  one  or  two 
points. 


XIV]  THE   BATTLE   OF   KOSSOVO  315 

kiss  Murad's  foot  'according  to  the  usage  of  his  kingdom'.'  Far  more 
striking  however  is  the  account  of  the  banquet  on  the  preceding  day,  which 
in  places  appears  to  be  little  more  than  a  free  translation  of  a  fragmentary 
poem  published  in  Karadzic's  collection 2;  "El  zorno  precedente  a  quelle 
che  segui  la  iniqua  et  infelice  bataglia,  Lazaro  convocati  tutti  i  signori  et 
principali  del  suo  imperio^,  comando  che  se  aparechiasse  una  sdraviza 
secondo  la  usanza  dela  sua  corte  ;  in  laquale,  come  gratioso  et  benigno 
signore,  a  tutti  porse  la  sdraviza  con  sua  mano.  Quando  la  volta  tocco  a 
Milos,  se  fh  dar  una  grande  taza  d'  oro  piena  de  pretioso  vino* ;  la  qual 
porzendoli  disse  a  Milos  :  '  Excellentissimo  cavalier,  prendi  questa  sdraviza, 
che  con  la  taza  te  dono...sdravize  per  amor  mio.  Ma  molto  mi  doglio  che 
ho  inteso  una  mala  novella,  che  al  tuo  dispoto  sei  facto  ribello'^  Al  qual 
Milos,  reverentemente  presa  la  taza  con  chiara  faza,  disse  :  '  Signor  dispoto, 
molto  te  ringratio  della  sdraviza  et  taza  d'  oro  che  m'  ai  donata.  Ma  molto 
mi  doglio  dela  mia  dubitata  fede^.  Doman  de  matina,  se  dio  dark  efifecto  al' 
alto  pensier  mio,  se  cognoscera  se  io  son  fidele  o  ribello  dela  tua  Signoria." 

This  translation  is  believed  to  be  of  Dalmatian  origin''  and,  according  to 
Prof.  Bury®,  itself  dates  from  the  fifteenth  century.  We  are  bound  to  con- 
clude therefore  that  Milos'  exploit  was  treated  in  poems — from  which  some 
of  the  extant  pieces  are  ultimately  descended — within  a  century  of  the  battle. 
The  earliest  direct  reference  to  poems  dealing  with  Khobilouitz  (i.e.  Milos 

'  'Secondo  la  usanza  del  suo  imperio'  (cf.  Miklosich,  6.  167  :  '  Ovaki  su  zakoni, 
Milosu,  u  zemlji  mojoj,'  etc.). 

^  Vuk  Stef.  Karadzid,  Srpski  Narodtie  PJesine,  Vol.  il  (Vienna,  1875),  50  iii 
(p.  310  ff.).  This  is  translated,  with  a  few  slight  changes,  in  Mme  Mijatovich's 
piece  'The  Banquet  before  Battle'  (p.  116  ff.).  A  somewhat  different  account  of  the 
same  incident — and  showing  less  resemblance  to  the  Italian — occurs  in  Miklosich, 
6.  116  ff.,  a  passage  which  is  not  used  by  Pasic  or  Mijatovich. 

^  Cf.  Karadzic,  li  50  iii,  v.  3  f. : 

Svu  gospodu  za  sofru  sjedao  {scil.   Lazare), 
svu  gospodu  i  gospodidide. 


*  Ibid.,  V.  13  : 
5  Ibid.,  V.  31  ff. 


®  Ibid.,  V.  39  ff. 


Car  uzima  zlatan  pehar  vina,  etc. 

Zdrav  Milosu,  vjero  i  nevjero  ! 
prva  vjero,  potonja  nevjero  ! 
Sjutra  ces  me  izdat'  na  Kosovu, 
i  odbjeci  Turskom  car-Muratu  ; 
zdrav  mi  budi !   i  zdravicu  popij  : 
vino  popij,  a  na  cast  ti  pehar. 


Vala  tebe,  slavni  knez- Lazare  ! 

Vala  tebe  na  tvojoj  zdravici, 

na  zdravici  i  na  daru  tvome ; 

al'  ne  vala  na  takoj  besjedi ;    etc. 
'  Cf.  Pasic,  op.  cit.,  p.  26. 
*  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vii  p.  327. 


3l6  THE   BATTLE   OF   KOSSOVO  [CHAP. 

Kobilovic)  goes  back  to  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  which  time 
they  are  said  to  have  been  numerous ^  It  may  be  however  that  the  accounts 
given  by  Ducas  himself  and  by  Laonicos  are  also  derived  ultimately  from 
poems  2.  But  if  so  the  poetic  treatment  of  the  subject  must  have  begun 
within  living  memory  of  the  battle ;  for  it  is  clear  from  the  evidence  of  these 
authors  that  by  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  story  had  come  to  the 
Greeks  in  more  than  one  form  and  that  it  had  even  attained  great  celebrity 
among  them^. 

The  Kossovo  poems  certainly  give  us  some  evidence  for  the  phenomenon 
which  we  have  above  (p.  307)  called  'transference.'  In  one  poem  (Karadzic, 
II  46,  v.  59  ff.)  we  find  it  stated  that  King  Vukasin  entered  into  the  battle 
and  met  with  his  death.  In  reality  he  was  killed  at  (or  shortly  after)  the 
battle  of  the  Marica  in  1371.  The  same  poem  also,  immediately  afterwards 
(v.  71  ff.),  introduces  Erceg  Stepan,  who  lived  nearly  a  century  later. 
But  this  poem*  is  of  a  very  peculiar  type — distinctly  non-heroic — and  it  is 
not  legitimate  to  draw  conclusions  from  it  as  to  the  poems  in  general.  It 
would  be  of  far  more  importance  for  our  purpose  if  we  knew  that  Jug 
Bogdan  was  attracted  into  the  story.  He  must  certainly  have  been  an  old 
man  in  1389,  since  he  had  his  territories  granted  to  him  by  Dusan,  who  died 
in  1356.  But  he  is  regularly  described  as  'the  old'  {start)  in  the  poems. 
The  fact  also  that  he  had  been  a  vassal  of  Murad  from  1372  onwards  is 
hardly  conclusive;  for  it  is  clear  that  a  great  effort  was  made  in  1389  to 
unite  the  various  Servian  princes.  On  the  whole  the  evidence,  so  far  as  it  is 
known  to  me,  does  not  seem  to  indicate  that  attraction  or  transference  has 
played  an  important  part  in  the  story. 

For  the  invention  of  characters  there  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  absolutely 
decisive  evidence.  But  probably  few  would  be  inclined  to  regard  such  a 
person  as  Vaistina,  the  servant  or  squire  {sluga)  of  Music  Stefan^  (Karadzic, 

'  Cf.  Murko,  Geschichte  der  dlteren  siidslaw.  Litteraiitren,  p.  205. 

-  This  is  perhaps  rather  suggested  by  one  or  two  of  Laonicos'  sentences,  e.g. 
(MtjXoij'  (paffiv)  CoirkKTiiivov  iXavveiv  avv  t<^  'ivirifi  iirl  rb' Afiovpareoj  aTpaTbireSov,  clis  hv 
avTo/jLoKovvTa  dird  tuv  evavTiwv  (p.  54) ;  and  more  especially  by  the  speech  which 
Ducas  (p.  15)  attributes  to  Milos:  "Boi^Xo/itat  tovtov  iSelv  koX  \6yovs  rivas  inro^idvplffai 
COS  iyKpaTT]s  yeviffdai  rovTovt  toO  Tro\i/j.ov  ^veKa  yap  tovtov  avT6fJ.o\os  i\ri\v6a."  With 
the  last  sentence  we  may  compare  Miklosich,  6.  164  : 

Ja  sam  ti  se  odvrg'o  od  vojske  Lazara  kneza. 

^  Cf.  Laonicos,  I.e.:  "E\\Tifes...\4yov(nv  avSpa  yewaiOTaTov  ideXrjffai  inbvra 
viroaTTJvai  dyiUva  KoXKicrTov  8ri  tCjv  irujiroTe  yeuofj-efup,  and  again,  below  :  opfiTjv  iracwv 
8ri  KaWi(TTT)v  (if  i]/jLeh  ifffiev. 

*  The  first  part  of  this  poem  (vv.  i — 44)  corresponds  to  Mijatovich,  p.  104  ff. ; 
the  second  part  (v.  47  ff.)  to  Mijatovich,  p.  126  ff.  In  such  cases  as  this  it  is  much 
to  be  regretted  that  Mme  Mijatovich  did  not  adhere  to  Karadzic's  text.  If  the 
explanation  be  that  her  version  is  derived  from  a  different  source — and  not  due  to 
arbitrary  transposition — this  should  have  been  made  clear. 

^  In  Miklosich,  6.  i — 58,  which  deals  with  the  same  story  the  squire  is  called 
Oliver,  while  his  master's  name  appears  as  Busic  Stjepane. 


I 


XI V]  THE   BATTLE   OF    KOSSOVO  317 

II  47),  otherwise  than  as  a  product  of  fiction  ;  and  the  same  remark  applies 
to  the  squire  Milutin  who  brings  the  news  of  Lazar's  death  to  the  queen 
{lb.  45.  146  fif.).  It  is  a  more  difficult  matter  to  form  an  opinion  as  to  whether 
any  of  the  more  important  characters  are  fictitious.  Several  of  them  appear 
to  be  unknown  from  contemporary  historical  works.  Among  these  we  may 
mention  Music  Stefan  himself  and  more  especially  Banovic  Strahinja,  the 
hero  of  the  longest  poem  in  the  cycle  lyib.  44).  So  far  as  I  know,  the  earliest 
reference  to  the  latter  is  in  the  Chronicle  of  Tronosa,  which  mentions  inci- 
dentally the  destruction  of  his  palace  1.  Again,  according  to  the  poems 
Milos  was  accompanied  on  his  errand  to  Murad  by  two  of  his  friends,  Milan 
Toplica  and  Ivan  Kosancic.  Both  these  persons  are  mentioned  in  the  same 
connection  by  the  Chronicle  of  Tronosa,  which  adds  that  at  the  banquet  on 
the  preceding  night  they,  as  well  as  Milos,  had  been  charged  with  disloyalty 
by  the  king.  This  chronicle  is  believed  to  be  derived  from  a  MS.  of  the 
sixteenth  century;  but  there  is  practically  no  doubt  that  it  has  drawn  largely 
from  poetic  sources.  Our  earliest  authorities,  Laonicos  and  Ducas,  together 
with  the  translation  of  the  latter,  seem  to  imply  distinctly  that  Milos  carried 
out  his  exploit  alone.  That  however  does  not  prove  that  the  characters 
themselves  are  fictitious.  On  the  whole,  considering  the  limited  amount  of 
information  which  early  records  furnish,  it  would  probably  be  wise  to  hesitate 
before  adopting  the  view  that  any  of  the  more  important  characters  are 
invented — at  all  events  those  which  can  be  traced  back  to  within  two  cen- 
turies of  the  battle. 

There  seems  to  be  no  evidence  for  the  introduction  of  what  can  properly 
be  called  mythical  beings  in  poems  of  the  Kossovo  cycle  ^.  But  sometimes 
we  certainly  find  supernatural  incidents.  In  Karadzic,  li  45.  119  ff.  two 
crows  from  the  field  of  Kossovo  bring  to  the  queen  the  first  news  of  the 
battle  and  of  Lazar's  death.  A  more  extravagant  case  occurs  in  the  opening 
verses  of  {ibid.)  ll  46 — a  poem  to  which  we  have  already  referred.  Lazar  is 
here  made  to  receive  a  letter  dropped  by  a  swallow  (which  is  carried  by  a 
falcon)  offering  him  the  choice  between  the  heavenly  and  earthly  kingdoms. 
In  another  (Croatian)  poem  (Karadzic,  11  48^)  the  mother  of  the  Jugovici 
prays  that  she  may  receive  the  eyes  of  a  falcon  and  the  wings  of  a  swan. 
Her  prayer  is  answered,  and  she  flies  to  the  field  of  Kossovo  and  sees  the 
dead  bodies  of  her  sons  and  husband.  This  poem  is  largely  taken  up  with 
the  marvellous  throughout  and  has  little  in  common  with  heroic  poetry. 

But  it  is  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  presentation  of  the  story  that  the 
Kossovo  poems  chiefly  merit  our  attention.  This  presentation  contains 
many  features  which  may  be  included  under  the  head  of  fiction.     Yet  in 

^  Quoted  by  Pasic,  op.  ctt.,  p.  30. 

2  Other  poems,  both  Christian  and  Mohammedan,  frequently  introduce  Vile, 
i.e.  nymphs  or  elf- women. 

^  Not  included  in  the  collections  of  Pasic  and  Mijatovich.  A  slightly  variant  form 
(apparently  of  Montenegrin  origin)  is  published,  together  with  a  translation,  in  Krauss' 
Slavische  Volkforschungen,  p.  289  f. 


3l8  THE   BATTLE   OF   KOSSOVO  [CHAP. 

certain  cases  it  is  a  question  whether  we  have  not  rather  what  may  be  called 
a  growth  of  myth.  By  this  I  mean  the  introduction  and  development  of 
motives  which,  though  incorrect  historically,  can  hardly  be  regarded,  at 
least  in  their  entirety,  as  conscious  inventions  of  an  individual.  They 
would  seem  rather  to  have  originated  in  rumour  and  popular  misconceptions. 
As  examples  we  may  take  what  are  perhaps  the  two  most  salient  features  in 
the  story — the  exploit  of  Milos  and  his  confederates  and  the  treachery  of 
Vuk  Brankovic. 

We  have  already  dealt  with  the  first  of  these  incidents.  The  poems 
make  Milos  and  his  companions  perform  prodigies  of  valour  before  they  are 
overcome.  But  our  earliest  authorities  state  that  Milos  was  killed  almost 
immediately;  and  they  imply  that  he  was  alone.  Indeed  we  know  that  the 
Turks  gave  quite  a  different  account  of  Murad's  death.  It  is  not  at  all  clear 
that  between  the  two  the  Servian  account  possesses  the  greater  probability. 
But  it  may  very  well  have  been  believed  among  the  Servians  from  the  very 
beginning,  whether  its  origin  is  to  be  traced  to  genuine  information  derived 
from  the  Turkish  camp  or  merely  to  idle  rumour. 

Again,  the  treachery  of  Vuk  Brankovic  is  proclaimed  again  and  again  in 
the  poems.  But  there  is  no  evidence  earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century  to 
substantiate  the  charge^.  The  first  reference  to  treachery  in  Lazar's  army 
occurs  in  the  translation  of  Ducas'  history  (p.  354) ;  but  here  the  traitor  is 
called  '  Dragossavo  Probiscio,  capitaneo  del  campo  del  dispoto.'  It  has 
been  suggested  that  Vuk's  unenviable  celebrity  in  the  poems  is  due  to  the 
unpopularity  of  his  son,  George  Brankovic,  who  ruled  over  Servia  from 
1427  to  1457^. 

The  above  brief  sketch  will  probably  be  sufficient  to  show  that  these 
poems  are  capable  of  throwing  a  good  deal  of  light  upon  the  origin  and 
development  of  a  heroic  story.  The  period  is  one  for  which,  comparatively 
speaking,  a  fair  amount  of  information  is  available  ;  and  quite  possibly  more 
might  be  obtained  by  a  careful  investigation  of  the  documents  of  that  age. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  of  course  that  after  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  nothing  like  court  poetry  can  have  existed  in  Ser\na.  We  should 
expect  then  that  from  this  time  onwards  the  poems  would  become  more  and 
more  permeated  by  those  characteristics  which  we  have  assigned  to  Stage  in 
of  our  scheme.  As  a  matter  of  fact  some  of  the  poems  show  these  charac- 
teristics only  to  a  comparatively  slight  degree.  This  is  especially  the  case 
with  the  poem  on  the  banquet  (Karadzic,  11  50  iii) ;  but  part  of  this  poem,  as 
we  have  seen,  can  be  traced  back  to  the  fifteenth  century.     On  the  other 

1  Prof.  Murko  (op.  ciL,  p.  202)  states  that  Vuk  "in der  Schlacht  in  hervorragender 
Weise  seine  Pflicht  erfiillt  und  sich  dann  mit  den  Turken  gar  nicht  ausgesohnt  hat  wie 
Lazar's  Sohn  Stefan."  I  do  not  know  the  authority  for  the  first  part  of  this  statement ; 
but  according  to  the  Turkish  account  (cf.  Engel,  Geschichte  von  Serwien,  p.  346)  the 
(right)  wing  of  the  Servian  army  which  was  commanded  by  Vuk  was  successfiil. 

^  Cf.  Pasic,  op.  cit.,  p.  42. 


XIV]  THE   BATTLE  OF   KOSSOVO  319 

hand  the  characteristics  of  Stage  iii  are  very  strongly  marked  in  Karadzic 
II  46  and  48.     I  should  expect  that  these  poems  are  late  compositions. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  deal  with  the  subject  the  result  of  the 
discussion  has  been  that  there  is  little  or  no  definite  evidence  for  the  inven- 
tion of  characters.  That  is  a  result  which  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
surprising,  in  view  of  the  history  of  Servian  poetry.  On  the  other  hand  the 
conditions  were  such  as  we  should  expect  to  be  exceptionally  favourable  to 
the  development  of  transference  or  attraction.  Yet  there  is  but  little  satis- 
factory evidence  in  this  direction.  I  am  inclined  therefore  to  think  that  the 
force  of  this  principle  has  been  considerably  overestimated  by  recent  writers. 
What  the  Kossovo  poems  do  seem  to  suggest  is — not  that  the  characters  of 
the  Iliad  were  invented  or  attracted  from  other  quarters,  but  that  their 
exploits  and  their  relations  with  one  another  may  in  reality  have  been  very 
different  from  what  we  find  depicted  in  the  poem. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE    COMMON    CHARACTERISTICS    OF   TEUTONIC   AND 
GREEK    HEROIC    POETRY. 

•^  Our  review  of  the  Homeric  poems  has  led  us  to  conclude 
that  their  origin  and  early  history  was  in  many  respects  analo- 
gous to  that  of  the  English  heroic  poems  ;  and  further,  that 
there  is  no  valid  reason  for  regarding  the  stories  with  which 
they  deal  as  mythical  or  fictitious,  although  we  cannot,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  English  poems,  actually  prove  that  they  rest  upon  a 
historical  basis.  We  must  now  endeavour  to  see  what  common 
elements  the  two  series  of  poems  contain  in  regard  to  style  and 
spirit.  This  will  enable  us  to  determine  whether  the  term 
'  Heroic  Age,'  as  applied  to  the  two  cases  in  common,  can  be 
held  to  mean  anything  more  than  an  age  of  '  heroes,'  whose 
deeds  were  celebrated  in  poetry. 

The  most  cursory  glance  at  the  two  groups  of  poems  will  be 
sufficient  to  show  that  they  contain  many  common  features  in 
regard  to  style.     In  both  we  find  the  constant  repetition  of  the 

^ame  formulae,  e.g.  in  the  introduction  of  speeches.  Thus  in 
the  first  part  of  Beowulf  eight  speeches  out  of  thirteen  by  the 
hero  himself  are  introduced  by  the  formula  :  Beowulf  map elode 
beam  Ecgpeowes,  while  three  of  Hrothgar's  seven  speeches  follow 
the  words  :  Hro^gar  inajyelode  helm  Scyldinga.  In  the  Iliad  we 
may  compare  the  constant  repetition  of  such  formulae  as :  rov  8' 
a'Tra[JbeL^6fievo<i  Trpoaecpr)  Kpeiwv  'A^a/ie/ivtoi'  or :  rbv  S'  rjiJbei^eT 
eireira  TeprivLO<i  liriroTa  Nia-rcop.  The  explanation  of  such 
formulae  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  both  sets 
of  poems  were  designed  for  preservation  by  oral  tradition.  In 
literary  poems  such  as  the  Aeneid  they  seem  to  be  avoided. 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY  32 1 

Indeed  the  words  introducing  a  speech  are  here  seldom  allowed 
to  occupy  a  whole  verse. 

Another  feature  common  to  the  two  groups  of  poems  is  the 
love  of  describing  somewhat  minutely  the  details  of  a  transaction  2. 
whiclTin  itself  is  nothing  unusual.  Often  in  such  cases  they  use 
very  similar  language.  Thus  in  Od.  IV  778  ff.  Antinoos'  pre- 
parations are  described  as  follows:  "With  these  words  he  picked 
out  twenty  men  who  were  the  best,  and  they  went  on  their  way 
to  the  swift  ship  and  the  sea-shore.  First  of  all  they  pushed  out 
the  ship  into  deep  water ;  and  they  placed  the  mast  and  the 
sails  in  the  black  ship  and  made  ready  the  oars  in  the  leathern 
rowlocks,  each  in  its  proper  place,  and  spread  out  the  white 
sails.  And  high-hearted  squires  carried  their  arms.  The  ship 
they  moored  afloat  in  the  roadstead ;  but  they  themselves  dis- 
embarked. There  they  took  their  supper  and  waited  for  the 
approach  of  evening."  With  this  passage  we  may  compare 
Beow.  205  fif. :  "The  hero  had  with  him  picked  champions  of  the 
men  of  the  Geatas,  the  bravest  he  could  find  ;  so  with  fourteen 
companions  he  made  his  way  to  the  vessel.  A  skilful  pilot  was 
the  man  who  pointed  out  the  features  of  the  coast.  When  due 
time  had  elapsed  the  ship  was  afloat  beneath  the  lee  of  the  cliff, 
and  the  warriors  all  prepared  ascended  the  prow,  where  the 
waves  of  the  sea  were  playing  upon  the  sand.  Into  the  bosom  of 
the  craft  men  bore  their  bright  treasures,  even  their  resplendent 
armour.  The  company  pushed  oft"  their  timbered  craft  and 
started  on  the  adventure  of  their  choice." 

Again  the  movements  of  royal  personages  in  their  palaces  ^ 
are  sometimes  rather  carefully  noted.  In  Od.  I  328  ff.  we  are 
told  that  "  Icarios'  daughter,  thoughtful  Penelope,  became  con- 
scious of  the  glorious  song  in  her  upper  chamber  ;  and  she 
descended  the  lofty  staircase  of  her  dwelling,  but  not  alone,  for 
two  attendant  maidens  accompanied  her.  Now  when  the  noble 
lady  drew  near  the  suitors  she  stood  beside  the  pillar  of  the  well 
built  house,  holding  her  shining  veil  before  her  face ;  and  one  of 
her  trusty  attendants  stood  by  her  on  either  side."  With  this 
we  may  compare  Beow.  921  ff. :  "As  for  the  king  himself,  the 
guardian  of  the  ring-hoards,  famed  for  his  sterling  qualities — he 
likewise  strode  majestically  from  his  bedchamber  with  a  great 


322  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY       [CHAP. 

following ;  and  with  him  his  queen  traversed  the  ascent  to  the 
mead-hall,  accompanied  by  a  band  of  maidens.    When  Hrothgar 
arrived  at  the  hall  he  stood  by  the  pillar  (?),  gazing  on  the  lofty 
roof,  adorned  with  gold,  and  on  Grendel's  arm." 
[l  Both  poems  also  elaborate  the  various  stages  in  the  arrival^ 

_and  reception  of  visitors.  As  an  example  we  may  take  the 
account  of  Telemachos'  arrival  at  Menelaos'  palace  in  Od.  IV. 
20  ff.:  "At  this  time  the  hero  Telemachos  and  Nestor's  dis- 
tinguished son  had  drawn  up  with  their  horses  in  the  vestibule 
of  the  palace.  Now  the  lord  Eteoneus,  renowned  Menelaos' 
active  squire,  came  forward  and  saw  them.  And  he  went  on  his 
way  through  the  building  to  give  the  news  to  the  shepherd  of 
the  people;  and  standing  beside  him  addressed  him  with  winged 
words."  Menelaos  replies  that  the  strangers  are  to  be  brought 
in  at  once.  The  arrival  of  Beowulf  at  the  Danish  king's  palace 
is  described  at  much  greater  length.  First,  he  is  greeted  by 
Wulfgar,  the  king's  herald  and  henchman.  Then  he  replies, 
and  Wulfgar  promises  to  take  his  message.  "  Quickly  then 
he  sped  to  where  Hrothgar  was  sitting,  aged  and  grey-haired, 
among  his  retinue  of  nobles.  Exulting  in  his  prowess  he 
passed  on  until  he  took  his  stand  at  the  side  of  the  prince  of  the 
Danes  ;  for  he  knew  the  usage  of  chivalry."  After  this  we  have 
still  three  more  speeches — first  by  Wulfgar  to  the  king,  then  the 
latter's  reply  and  finally  Wulfgar's  answer  to  Beowulf — before 
the  visitors  enter. 

We  may  compare  also  the  formulae  used  in  greetings  to_ 
•^  strangers.  Thus  in  Od.  I  169  ff.  Telemachos  addresses  the  dis- 
guised Athene  as  follows  :  "  Now  come,  tell  me  this  and  declare 
it  plainly  :  Who  of  men  art  thou,  and  whence  ?  Where  are  thy 
city  and  thy  parents  ,'*  And  (tell  me)  upon  what  sort  of  a  ship 
thou  hast  come  " — with  several  other  questions.  Another  case 
occurs  in  III  71  ff.,  where  Nestor  is  greeting  Telemachos:  "Sirs, 
who  are  ye,  and  whence  do  ye  sail  the  watery  paths  ?  Is  it 
upon  some  enterprise,  or  do  ye  wander  over  the  sea  at  random, 
like  pirates  who  rove,  risking  their  lives  and  bringing  evil  to 
men  of  other  lands  .'* "  Beowulf  receives  a  somewhat  similar 
greeting  from  the  Danish  coast-guard,  when  he  lands  (v.  237  ff.)  : 
"  What  warriors  are  ye  that  thus  have  come  clad  in  coats  of 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS  OF    HEROIC   POETRY  323 

mail,  bringing  hither  your  lofty  ship  over  the  waters  along  the 
high  road  of  the  sea?"  And  again,  shortly  afterwards  (v.  251  ff.): 
"  Now  must  I  know  your  origin,  before  ye  start  hence  and  pro- 
ceed further  as  spies  into  the  land  of  the  Danes.  Ye  dwellers 
afar,  ye  who  traverse  the  sea,  hear  now  my  fixed  resolve.  Best 
is  it  with  speed  to  make  known  whence  ye  are  come." 

Again,  both  poems  like  to  dw^ll  upon  the  emotions  felt  in  (T^ 
greeting  or  bidding  farewell  to  friends.  Thus  in  Od.  XVI  14  ff. 
it  is  stated  that  Eumaios  "  came  up  to  his  lord  and  kissed  his 
head  and  both  his  fair  eyes  and  both  his  hands,  and  the  hot 
tears  fell  from  him.  As  an  affectionate  father  greets  his  son 
when  he  returns  from  a  distant  land  after  nine  years  absence — 
an  only  son  and  well  loved  (?),  for  whose  sake  he  has  endured 
many  hardships — even  so  then  did  the  noble  swineherd  kiss  god- 
like Telemachos  all  over  and  embrace  him  as  one  escaped  from 
death."  With  this  we  may  compare  the  account  of  Hrothgar's 
farewell  to  Beowulf  (v.  1870  ff.):  "Then  did  the  king  of  noble 
lineage,  the  prince  of  the  Scyldingas,  kiss  that  best  of  squires 
and  clasp  him  round  the  neck.  Tears  fell  from  him,  as  he  stood 
there  with  his  grey  hair.  Aged  and  venerable  as  he  was,  he 
felt  uncertain,  indeed  he  thought  it  unlikely,  that  they  would 
ever  meet  again  in  spirited  converse.  So  dear  was  this  man  to 
him  that  he  could  not  restrain  his  heart's  emotion ;  but  in  his 
breast,  fast  bound  within  his  heart,  a  secret  longing  for  the 
beloved_  man  burnt  in  his  blood." 

The  frequent  use  of  similes,  as  in  the  last  passage  from  the 
Odyssey,  Js  one  of  the  chief  features  in  which  Greek  heroic 
poetry  differs  from  Teutonic.  Sometimes  however  the  same  ■f- 
kind  of  picture  is  brought  before  us  in  a  different  way.  Thus 
among  the  commonest  Homeric  similes  are  those  derived  from 
hunting  scenes.  A  typical  example  occurs  in  II.  XV  271  ff. : 
"  As  when  hounds  and  men  of  the  country  chase  a  horned  stag 
or  a  wild  goat,  and  it  is  saved  by  a  precipitous  rock  or  dense 
wood,  and  they  cannot  succeed  in  finding  it,"  etc.  With  this 
may  be  compared  a  passage  in  Beowulf  describing  the  pool  in 
which  the  demons  had  made  their  lair  (v.  1369  ff.) :  "Though 
the  heath-ranger,  the  stag  of  mighty  horns,  may  make  his  way 
to  the  forest  when  beset  by  hounds  after  a  long  chase,  he  will 


B 


324  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY       [CHAP. 

yield  up  his  spirit  and  his  life  on  the  brink  before  he  will  be 
willing  to  shelter  his  head  therein." 

Occasionally  we  meet  with  similes  of  a  more  ambitious,  not 
to  say  extravagant,  character,  as  in  II.  II  455  ff.,  where  the 
gleam  arising  from  the  bronze  armour  of  the  Achaean  army  is 
compared  to  the  blaze  produced  by  a  forest  fire.  For  this  also 
we  find  parallels  in  Teutonic  poetry,  e.g.  Finn  35  f. :  "A  gleam 
arose  from  the  swords,  as  though  Finn's  fortress  were  all  on 
fire." 

In  the  use  of  epithets  and  poetical  expressions  many  remark- 
able parallels  are  to  be  found.  Some  of  these  are  merely  of  a 
descriptive  character,  e.g.  ciKpia^  r/vefioia-aa^;  (Od.  XVI  365) 
beside  windige  naessas  (Beow.  1359),  and  some  are  little  more 
than  circumlocutions,  e.g.  i'te9  ^ h.-^aiwy,  Geata  beam,  for  Kyaioi, 
Geatas.  In  other  cases  however  a  distinct  metaphor  is  involved, 
as  when  ships  are  called  aXo<i  Xinroi  (Od.  IV  708),  corresponding 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  brimhengest,  which  is  probably  an  epic 
word,  though  it  does  not  occur  in  the  extant  fragments.  In 
particular  note  should  be  taken  of  the  metaphorical  terms 
applied  to  kings,  e.g.  ttolixt^v  Xaoov  which  may  be  compared  with 
folces  hyrde,  epKo^  '' k-yauZv  with  eodur  Scyldinga,  and  perhaps 
also  oupo9  'A;^at(Mi/  with  the  very  common  expression  eorla  hleo. 

The  characteristics  which  we  have  been  discussing  up  till 
now  affect  only  the  language  and  style  of  the  two  groups  of 
poems.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  they  possess  also  certain 
common  features  which  appear  to  be  of  deeper  significance. 
Thus  such  expressions  as  o\^ov  eireKKfoaav  or  wigspeda  gewiofu 
('the  webs  of  success  in  war')  are  probably  to  be  traced  to  a 
primitive  religious  conception,  which  may  be  seen  more  clearly 
in  Od.  VII  196  ff. :  "There  he  shall  experience  afterwards  what- 
ever Fate  and  the  stern  KXw^e?  ('spinning  women')  spun  for 
him  when  he  was  born\"  For  the  prevalence  of  similar  ideas 
among  the  Teutonic  peoples  we  may  refer  to  HelgakviSa 
Hundingsbana,  I  3  f.,  Gylfaginning,  cap.  15,  Nials  Saga,  cap.  157, 
and    above   all    to   the    Saga   af   Nornagesti    (cap.    11),  which 

1  We  may  compare  such  expressions  as  me  }faet  wyrd  gewaef  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Rhyming  Poem  (Cod.  Exon.),  v.  70. 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC    POETRY  325 

presents  such  a  remarkable  parallel  to  the  story  of  Althaia  and 
Meleagros. 

Somewhat  clearer  evidence  of  a  common  religious  conception 
is  furnished  by  Beow.  2124  ff.,  a  passage  which  we  have  already 
quoted  (p.  54).  The  rite  of  'paying  the  due  of  fire'  (XeXa^eocrt 
TTupo?)  to  a  dead  man  is  often  mentioned  in  the  Iliad  (e.g.  vil 
79  f.,  XXII  342  f.,  XXIII  76;  cf.  XXIV  37  f.)  and  undoubtedly 
had  a  religious  significance.  This  may  be  seen  especially  from 
the  speech  of  Elpenor  in  Od.  XI  71  ff. :  "There  I  exhort  thee 
then,  my  lord,  to  be  mindful  of  me  and  not  to  leave  me  behind 
unlamented  and  unburied,  abandoning  me  when  thou  goest 
away,  lest  I  bring  down  wrath  from  the  gods  upon  thee.  But 
burn  me  up  with  my  arms,  all  that  I  possess,  and  construct  for 
me  a  barrow  upon  the  shore  of  the  grey  sea,  the  memorial  of  an 
unfortunate  man,  so  that  I  may  be  known  even  to  those  who 
shall  be  hereafter." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  passage,  apart  from  its  religious 
bearing,  expresses  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  speaker  that  his 
memory  may  not  be  forgotten.  Here  we  are  brought  to  one  of 
_the  most  striking  characteristics  of  heroic  poetry,  both  Greek 
and  Teutonic,  namely  the  constantly  expressed  thirst  for  fame, 
both  during  one's  own  life  and  in  after  times.  As  a  typical 
example  we  may  take  a  passage  from  Hector's  speech  before 
his  combat  with  Aias  (II.  vii  85  ff.) :  "  I  will  give  up  his  body  to 
the  longhaired  Achaeans,  so  that  they  may  take  him  to  the  well- 
decked  ships  for  burial  and  construct  for  him  a  memorial  barrow 
by  the  broad  Hellespont.  So  shall  it  be  said  in  time  to  come 
by  some  one  who  lives  in  after  days,  when  he  sails  his  many- 
oared  ship  over  the  dark  sea:  'This  is  the  memorial  of  a  man 
who  died  long  ago,  who  once  upon  a  time  was  slain  in  his 
prowess  by  glorious  Hector.'  So  shall  it  be  said  in  time  to 
come  ;  and  my  fame  shall  never  perish."  In  Od.  XXIV  80  ff. 
Agamemnon's  spirit  describes  how  such  honours  had  been  paid 
to  the  remains  of  Achilles  : ""  Then  over  them  our  sacred  host 
of  warriors  from  Argos  constructed  a  great  and  splendid  grave- 
mound,  upon  a  projecting  headland  above  the  broad  Hellespont 
— so  that  it  might  be  conspicuous  to  men  upon  the  sea,  both  those 
who  are  now  alive  and  those  who  shall  be  hereafter."    With  both 


Id 


\ 


// 


326  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY        [CHAP. 

these  passages  we  may  compare  the  dying  words  of  Beowulf 
(v.  2802  fif.) :  "  After  the  pyre  is  consumed  command  my  famous 
warriors  to  construct  a  splendid  grave-chamber  where  the  head- 
land juts  into  the  sea.  It  shall  tower  aloft  on  H rones  Naes  as 
a  memorial  for  my  people — so  that  in  after  days  the  name  of 
'  Beowulfs  Barrow'  shall  be  familiar  to  mariners  who  ply  their 
tall  ships  from  afar  over  the  dark  waters." 

The  summit  of  a  hero's  ambition  is  to  have  his  glory  cele- 
brated everywhere  and  for  all  time.  Odysseus  himself  says 
(Od.  IX  20)  that  his  glory  reaches  to  heaven.  His  wife  bewails 
her  troubles  in  the  following  words  {ib.  IV  724) :  "  Before  this  I 
lost  my  brave  lion-hearted  husband  who  was  preeminent  among 
the  Danaoi  for  every  kind  of  excellence.  Far  and  wide  was  that 
brave  man's  glory  spread,  throughout  Hellas  and  mid  Argos." 
The  extent  of  Beowulfs  fame  is  proclaimed  in  more  extravagant 
terms.  One  passage  (v.  1221  fif.)  has  already  been  quoted  (p.  88). 
We  may  compare  also  v.  856  ff.:  "There  was  Beowulf's  fame 
celebrated.  Frequently  and  by  many  was  it  declared  that 
whether  to  the  south  or  north,  between  the  two  seas,  on  earth's 
broad  expanse  and  beneath  the  canopy  of  heaven,  there  existed 
no  nobler  warrior  nor  one  more  worthy  to  govern." 

This  love  of  glory  is  held  up  as  an  incitement  to  bravery  in 
critical  situations,  as  in  Wald.  I  8  ff.,  where  Hildegyth  encourages 
the  hero  as  follows  :  "  O  son  of  Aelfhere,  a  day  is  come  which 
without  doubt  has  in  store  for  thee  one  or  other  of  two  issues — 
either  to  lose  thy  life  or  to  possess  lasting  glory  among  mortals." 
For  the  alternative  form  of  expression,  though  used  from  a 
different  point  of  view,  we  may  compare  Socos'  speech  in  II.  XI 
430  ff. :  "O  far-famed  Odysseus,  today  thou  shalt  either  be  able 
to  boast  over  two  sons  of  Hippasos — that  thou  hast  slain  such 
men  as  we  are  and  robbed  us  of  our  arms — or  smitten  beneath 
my  spear  thou  shalt  lose  thy  life." 

The  last  passage  introduces  us  to  another  prominent  charac- 
teristic of  heroic  poetry,  namely  the  boasting  of  warriors  over 
jtheir  own  personal  prowess  and  the  deeds  they  have  performed 
or  are  going  to  perform.  Sometimes  this  is  represented  as 
taking  place  in  the  banqueting  hall,  as  in  II.  XX  83  ff.,  where  the 
disguised  Apollo  thus  taunts  Aineias : "  Aineias,  thou  counseller 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY  327 

of  the  Trojans,  where  now  is  thy  boasting,  in  which  thou  didst 
vow  to  the  princes  of  the  Trojans,  when  quaffing  thy  wine,  that 
thou  wouldst  try  thy  strength  in  open  battle  against  Achilles 
son  of  Peleus ! "  We  may  compare  Beow.  480  ff. :  "  Often 
enough  have  scions  of  combat  vowed  over  the  ale-cup,  when 
drunken  with  beer,  that  they  would  abide  Grendel's  onset  in  the 
hall  with  their  terrible  swords."  Beowulf  himself  indulges  in  a 
similar  boast  (v.  636  ff.)  :  "  I  am  resolved  to  perform  a  deed  of 
knightly  prowess  or  to  meet  with  my  life's  end  in  this  mead- 
hall." 

Again,  it  is  by  boasting  of  much  the  same  kind  that  warriors 
make  themselves  known  to  one  another  when  they  meet  in 
battle.  A  typical  example  occurs  in  Finn  24  ff :  "Sigeferth  is 
my  name.  I  am  a  prince  of  the  Secgan  and  a  rover  known  far 
and  wide.  Many  hardships  and  stern  encounters  have  I  endured. 
Here  too  thou  shalt  have  for  certain  (i.e.  I  shall  not  draw  back 
from)  whichever  course  (i.e.  war  or  peace)  thou  dost  prefer  to 
take  with  me."  We  may  compare  II.  Xlil  448  ff,  where 
Idomeneus  makes  himself  known  to  Deiphobos :  "  Now  stand 
forth  thyself  to  face  me,  that  thou  mayest  see  what  sort  of  a 
scion  of  Zeus  is  come  here.  First  Zeus  begat  Minos  to  be  ruler 
of  Crete,  and  Minos  again  begat  the  blameless  Deucalion;  and 
Deucalion  begat  me  to  be  lord  over  many  men  in  broad  Crete. 
But  now  have  ships  brought  me  hither  with  consequences  evil 
to  thee  and  to  thy  father  and  the  rest  of  the  Trojans." 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  passage  Idomeneus  prides  himself 
as  much  on  his  ancestry^  as  on  his  own  prowess.  The  idea  of 
inherited  valour  finds  expression  again  in  II.  V  252  ff,  where 
Diomedes  says  to  Sthenelos :  "Exhort  me  not  to  flight,  for  I  am 
sure  thou  wilt  not  persuade  me.  Nowise  inbred  in  me  is  it  to 
fight  a  runaway  battle,  neither  to  cower  in  fear.  My  courage  is 
steadfast  still."     Practically  the   same   idea   appears  in   Beow. 

^  We  may  compare  a  passage  from  the  poem  on  the  battle  of  Maldon,  which 
largely  follows  heroic  poetry  (cf.  pp.  3,  97).  In  v.  216  ff.  Aelfwine,  one  of 
Byrhtnoth's  knights,  boasts  as  follows:  "I  will  make  my  lineage  known  to  all, 
that  I  come  of  a  great  Mercian  house.  My  grandfather,  Ealhhelm  by  name,  was 
a  wise  earl  and  blessed  with  worldly  prosperity.  Not  against  me  shall  knights  bring 
public  reproach,  that  I  am  willing  to  leave  this  army  and  make  my  way  home,  now 
that  my  prince  lies  slain  in  battle."     Ealhhelm  held  office  in  the  reign  of  Edmund  I. 


328  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC    POETRY       [CHAP. 

2694  ff. :  "  Then,  as  I  have  been  told,  in  the  national  king's  dire 
need  the  knight  stood  upright  and  showed  forth  his  prowess — 
strength  and  valour  such  as  was  inbred  in  him." 

The  feeling  of  pride  in  a  noble  family  becomes  clearly  notice- 
able also  on  occasions  when  the  family  is  threatened  with 
extinction.  Beowulf's  farewell  words  to  Wiglaf  are  (v.  2814  ff.): 
"  Thou  art  the  last  remnant  of  our  house,  even  of  Waegmund's 
line.  All  my  kinsmen  in  their  knightly  prowess  has  Fate  swept 
off  to  their  doom.  I  myself  must  follow  them."  We  may  com- 
pare Od.  XIV  180  f,  though  here  the  speaker,  Eumaios,  is  only 
a  dependent  of  the  house  :  "  On  his  return  home  the  illustrious 
suitors  are  lying  in  wait  for  him,  in  order  that  the  seed  of 
godlike  Arceisios  may  vanish  nameless  from  Ithaca." 

Lastly,  the  heroic  spirit  shows  itself  in  the  exhortations^  of 
princes  to  their  followers.  As  an  instance  we  may  quote  a  verse 
'""which  occurs  several  times,  in  speeches  of  Hector  and  Patroclos: 
"  Be  men,  my  friends,  and  set  your  minds  upon  impetuous 
valour."  The  same  exhortation,  though  in  a  more  elaborate 
form,  occurs  in  Finn  10  ff. :  "  But  awake  now,  my  warriors,  have 
your  hands  ready  (or  'take  your  mail-coats'),  be  mindful  of  your 
prowess,  leap  forth  in  the  forefront  (?),  be  stout  of  heart." 

It  is  true  that  these  last  two  passages  would  in  themselves 
be  appropriate  in  any  martial  poetry.  But  we  must  take  the 
context  into  account.  Patroclos  immediately  (xvi  271  f)  adds 
the  words  "in  order  that  we  may  do  honour  to  the  son  of  Peleus, 
who  is  by  far  the  best  of  the  men  of  Argos."  So  in  Finn  40  f 
we  are  told  that  "  never  was  a  nobler  recompense  paid  for  sweet 
mead  than  was  (then)  rendered  to  Hnaef  by  his  bachelors."  The 
same  thought  occurs  elsewhere  in  the  English  poems,  e.g.  in 
Beow.  2634  ff.,  where  Wiglaf  is  exhorting  his  comrades :  "  I 
remember  the  time  when  we  were  receiving  mead,  when  in  the 
beer-hall  we  pledged  ourselves  to  our  lord  who  gave  us  these 
bracelets,  that  if  need  like  this  befell  him  we  would  repay  the 
battle-harness,  the  helmets  and  sharp  swords."  And  again, 
shortly  afterwards  (v.  2646  ff.) :  "  Now  is  the  day  come  that  our 
liege-lord  needs  the  strength  of  brave  warriors.  Let  us  draw 
near  to  help  our  war-chief,  so  long  as  the  heat  of  the  fierce  and 
terrible  flames  shall  last." 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC    POETRY  329 

The  underlying  idea  is  clearly  that  which  is  described  by 
Tacitus  {Germ.  14)  in  his  account  of  the  comitatus  of  the  ancient 
Germans  :  "  The  principes  fight  for  victory,  but  the  comites  fight 
for  their  princeps^."  And  this  description  is  probably  true  of  the 
Homeric  Greeks  just  as  much  as  of  the  Teutonic  heroes.  The 
terms  used  in  the  two  sets  of  poems  {Oepdircov — }>egn,  i.e.  conies  ; 
ava^ — dryhten,  \.q.  princeps),  seem  to  correspond  to  one  another 
almost  exactly,  though  it  is  not  easy  to  find  a  satisfactory  render- 
ing for  them  in  modern  English.  For  kings  too,  especially  such 
as  are  of  preeminent  position,  we  find  in  each  case  a  very  similar 
expression  (ava^  dvBpwv — eor/a  dryhten\  which  properly  denotes 
the  relationship  of  liege- lord. 

In  both  cases  alike  the  leading  idea  of  the  Heroic  Age  may 
be  fittingly  summed  up  in  the  phrase  /cXea  dvhpwv.  This  is 
practically  equivalent  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  doni,  with  which  we 
have  dealt  above  (p.  87  f.).  It  is  essential  to  notice  that  the 
object  so  much  prized  is  personal  glory.  In  Hector's  speech 
before  his  combat  with  Aias  (cf.  p.  325)  the  glory  which  would 
result  from  the  combat  to  the  hero  or  his  opponent  is  the  only 
subject  touched  upon.  No  consideration  is  taken  of  any  effect 
which  might  be  produced  thereby  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  war. 

The  same  characteristic  appears  throughout  the  passages 
which  we  have  quoted  and  countless  others.  Occasionally  we 
hear  also  of  pride  of  family,  but  scarcely  ever  of  any  truly 
national  feeling.  Patroclos  exhorts  his  men  to  bravery  (II.  xvi 
270  ff.)  in  order  that  they  may  win  glory  not  for  the  Achaean 
nation  but  for  their  own  personal  lord  ;  and  he  adds  further  that 
by  so  doing  they  will  bring  shame  upon  the  national  leader. 
Achilles  himself  retires  from  the  conflict  owing  to  a  personal 
wrong,  and  only  returns  to  it  in  order  to  avenge  his  friend.  The 
same  phenomena  appear  in  the  English  poems.  That  Wiglaf 
whose  bravery  is  said  to  be  '  inbred '  (cf.  p.  328)  was  the  son  of  a 
certain  Weohstan,  whose  great  achievement  was  the  slaying  of 
the  Swedish  prince  Eanmund.  Yet  Eanmund  was  at  this  time 
apparently  under  the  protection  of  Heardred,  king  of  the  Geatas, 

^  iam  uero  infante  in  omnem  uitam  ac  probrosum  stiperstitem  principi  suo  ex  acie 
recessisse.  ilium  defendere,  tueri,  sua  quoque  foriia  facia  gloriae  eius  assignare  prae- 
cipuum  sacramentum  est.    principes  pro  uictoria  pugtuint,  comites  pro  principe. 


330  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY        [CHAP. 

who  also  lost  his  life  in  the  same  war.  Weohstan  however, 
though  he  belonged  to  the  Geatas,  was  in  the  service  of  Onela, 
their  enemy.  It  would  seem  then  that  he  was  fighting  against 
his  own  nation.  Such  cases  appear  to  have  been  by  no  means 
uncommon  in  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age.  For  it  was  customary 
at  that  time  for  young  noblemen  to  take  service  under  foreign 
princes;  and  the  obligations  which  personal  service  imposed 
were  held  to  be  superior  to  all  others. 

Love  of  home  and  zeal  in  its  defence  are  of  course  frequently 
mentioned  in  both  groups  of  poems.  We  may  refer  to  the 
common  phrase  (fyiXrjv  eV  warpiha  <ydlav.  Most  frequently  how- 
ever, as  we  might  expect,  these  features  appear  in  connection 
with  the  Trojans.  In  II.  xil  243,  when  Pulydamas  has  urged 
retreat  in  consequence  of  an  omen,  Hector  replies:  "The  best  of 
all  omens  is  to  fight  in  defence  of  our  country."  Priam  uses  the 
same  expression  {ib.,  XXIV  499  f.)  when  he  comes  to  plead  with 
Achilles  for  his  son's  body :  "  He  preserved  my  city  and  its 
inhabitants,  even  Hector  whom  thou  hast  now  slain  as  he  fought 
in  defence  of  his  country."  These  feelings  may  be  regarded  as 
forms  of  patriotism  ;  but  it  is  patriotism  of  a  distinctly  practical 
kind,  as  may  be  seen  from  II.  XV  494  ff.,  where  Hector  is 
addressing  his  followers :  "  Now  fight  in  close  formation  at  the 
ships.  Whosoever  of  you  through  shot  or  blow  meets  with  death 
and  fate,  let  him  die.  Not  unseemly  is  it  for  him  to  die  fighting 
in  defence  of  this  country.  He  will  leave  his  wife  and  children 
in  safety,  his  house  also  and  his  estate  unharmed,  if  the  Achaeans 
depart  with  their  ships  to  their  own  dear  fatherland."  Much  the 
same  feelings  are  expressed  in  the  English  poems.  As  an 
example  we  may  take  Beow.  520  ff.,  where  Unferth  is  describing 
the  return  of  Breca  after  his  swimming  contest :  "  Welcome  to 
his  subjects  was  he  when  he  made  his  way  to  his  own  dear 
home,  the  land  of  the  Brondingas  and  his  beautiful  sacred  city^ 
where  people,  city  and  treasures  belonged  to  him."  We  may 
refer  also  to  Widsith,  v.  119  ff. :  "I  have  visited  Wulfhere  and 
Wyrmhere.     Often  enough  did  they  wage  war  unceasing,  when 

^  freti^oburh,  lit.  '  city  of  peace.'  The  expression  probably  springs  from  the 
sacred  peace  attaching  to  the  king's  dwelling,  to  which  we  find  frequent  allusions  in 
the  laws  (Ine,  §  6,  Alfred,  §  7,  etc.). 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC    POETRY  33 1 

around  the  forest  of  the  Vistula  the  Gothic  army  with  their  sharp 
swords  had  to  defend  their  ancient  domain^  from  Attila's 
subjects."  And  again  {ib.,  v.  127  ff ) :  "  Often  enough  did  the  spear 
fly  whistHng  and  shrieking,  from  that  troop  into  a  hostile  army, 
when  Wudga  and  Hama  guarded  their  golden  treasures  and  (the 
lives  of)  their  men  and  women." 

Such  passages  as  these  afford  abundant  evidence  for  patriotism 
of  the  practical  kind.  But  this  is  not  the  same  thing  as  national 
pride.  We  shall  best  be  able  to  appreciate  the  special  character- 
istics of  heroic  poetry  in  this  respect  by  comparing  it  with  other 
martial  poems,  dating  from  later  times.  An  excellent  example 
of  national  pride  is  furnished  by  the  well-known  epitaph  on 
Leonidas  and  the  Spartans  who  perished  at  Thermopylai.  We 
may  also  quote  the  '  Laconian  Embaterion '  commonly  included 
among  the  fragments  of  Tyrtaios  :  "  O  ye  youths,  whose  fathers 
have  been  citizens  of  Sparta,  the  home  of  heroes,  come,  hold 
forth  the  shield  in  your  left  hand  and  cast  the  spear  with  good 
courage.  Regard  not  your  life,  for  so  to  do  is  not  Sparta's 
ancestral  custom."  Other  good  examples  may  be  found  in  the 
works  of  the  early  elegiac  poets. 

What  perhaps  deserves  notice  above  all  in  poetry  of  this 
type  is  the  use  of  the  first  person  plural  with  reference  to 
exploits  performed  by  the  poet's  nation  in  bygone  times — a 
form  of  speech  which  seems  to  be  quite  foreign  to  heroic  poetry. 
An  example  occurs  in  Tyrtaios'  Eunomia  (fragm.  2):  "This  city 
has  been  given  to  the  Heracleidai  by  Zeus  himself,  the  son  of 
Cronos  and  husband  of  fair-crowned  Hera.  Together  with  them 
we  forsook  breezy  Erineos  and  made  our  way  to  Pelops'  broad 
island."  Here  the  reference  is  to  the  first  arrival  of  the  Dorians 
in  the  Peloponnesos.  Another  case  may  be  found  in  the  poem 
on  the  Messenian  war  (fragm.  5):  "...our  king  Theopompos 
dear  to  the  gods,  by  whose  help  we  captured  spacious  Messene 
...Round  about  it  (or  '  for  its  sake')  war  was  waged  for  nineteen 

^  ealdne  e\elstol.  If  this  expression  is  to  be  interpreted  in  a  local  sense  ('seat  of 
authority ')  it  is  possible  to  read  the  idea  of  patriotism  as  a  sentiment  into  it ;  but  my 
impression  is  that  the  poet  means  no  more  than  defence  of  home.  A  different 
interpretation  of  the  passage  is  given  by  Prof.  Heusler  (S.-B.  d.  Akad.  d.  VViss.  zu 
Berlin,  1909,  p.  926),  according  to  whom  it  means  "  Verteidigung  Aes  eald  e}felstol, 
des  alten  Erbthrones  (nicht  Stammsitzes)." 


332  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY       [CHAP. 

years,  ever  without  ceasing,  by  the  fathers  of  our  fathers,  warriors 
who  possessed  the  spirit  of  endurance."  A  similar  usage  ap- 
pears in  Mimnermos,  fragm.  9:  "On  quitting  steep  Pylos,  the 
town  of  Neleus,  we  came  in  ships  to  the  pleasant  land  of  Asia, 
and  at  fair  Colophon  with  overmastering  strength  we  took  up  our 
abode,  beginning  the  arduous  assault.  Thence  in  turn,  starting 
from  the  river  Aleis,  by  the  will  of  the  gods  we  took  Aeolian 
Smyrna*."  Both  the  foundation  of  Colophon  and  the  capture 
of  Smyrna  took  place  long  before  the  poet's  time. 

The  same  patriotic  sentiment  is  to  be  found  in  the  martial 
poetry  of  later  times  in  England.  Thus  in  the  poem  on  the 
battle  of  Brunanburh  (v.  20  ff.)  we  are  told  that  "throughout  the 
whole  day  the  West  Saxons  with  troops  of  horse  pressed  on  in 
pursuit  of  the  enemy's  forces.  Fiercely  they  cut  down  the 
fugitives  from  behind  with  swords  sharpened  on  the  grindstone. 
Nor  did  the  Mercians  refuse  stern  hand-to-hand  combat  to  any 
of  the  warriors  who  in  the  ship's  bosom  had  followed  Anlaf  over 
the  rolling  waters  to  our  land,  to  meet  their  doom  in  battle.  On 
the  field  of  action  lay  five  young  kings  stretched  lifeless  by  the 
sword  ;  and  with  them  seven  of  Anlafs  earls,  and  a  countless 
host  both  of  the  seamen  and  the  Scots."  And  again  (v.  65  ff.) : 
"  Never  in  this  island  before  now,  so  far  as  the  books  of  our 
ancient  historians  can  tell  us,  has  greater  slaughter  been  made 
of  an  army  by  the  edge  of  the  sword — since  the  time  when  the 
Angles  and  Saxons  made  their  way  hither  from  the  east  over  the 
wide  seas,  invading  Britain,  when  warriors  eager  for  glory,  proud 
forgers  of  war,  overcame  the  Welsh  and  won  for  themselves 
a  country." 

We  need  not  hesitate  to  interpret  the  last  part  of  this  quota- 
tion as  an  expression  of  national  consciousness,  just  as  much  as 
in  the  poem  of  Mimnermos  given  above,  although  it  does  not  use 
the  first  person  with  reference  to  the  achievements  of  the  Saxon 
invaders.  But  the  poem  as  a  whole  differs  essentially  from  the 
heroic  type  owing  to  the  fact  that — though  the  princes  are 
mentioned  incidentally — it  is  permeated  throughout  by  the  sense 
of  national  rather  than  individual  glory. 

^  For  the  translation  of  this  fragment  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of 
Mr  A.  B.  Cook. 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY  333 

/j^.^  Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  individual  passages  in 
the  poems.  Now  we  must  consider  briefly  the  motives  of  the 
stories  and  the  characteristics  for  which  the  heroes  are  celebrated. 
The  story  of  Beowulf  consists  of  a  series  of  adventures  in  which 
the  hero  seeks  to  display  his  prowess  in  encounters  with  monsters. 
The  story  of  Finn,  if  we  may  form  an  opinion  from  the  frag- 
mentary evidence  at  our  disposal,  dealt  with  a  fatal  quarrel 
between  two  brothers-in-law,  followed  by  revenge.  The  theme 
of  Waldhere's  story  is  the  elopement,  or  rather  escape,  of  lovers 
and  the  bravery  shown  by  the  hero  in  defence  of  his  bride.  The 
term  elopement  may  more  properly  be  applied  to  the  story  of 
HeSinn  and  Hogni,  whatever  was  the  original  form  of  its  ending. 
A  counterpart  to  this  is  furnished  by  the  story  of  HagbarSr  and 
Signy,  which  ended  tragically  in  the  death  of  the  lovers.  The 
story  of  SigurtJr  deals  with  a  woman's  revenge,  brought  about 
by  disappointed  love.  The  theme  of  the  story  of  HamSir  and 
Sorli  is  the  revenge  undertaken  by  them  for  the  death  of  their 
sister.  Revenge  is  likewise  the  theme  of  Ingeld's  story — in  this 
case  for  the  death  of  a  father.  The  story  of  Offa  is  an  instance 
of  heroism  in  single  combat.  In  the  various  stories  connected 
with  Dietrich  von  Bern  attention  is  centred  chiefly  on  the 
bravery,  loyalty  and  resourcefulness  of  the  hero  and  his  knights. 

It  will  be  seen  that  throughout  the  heroic  poetry  of  the 
Teutonic  peoples,  in  episodes  as  well  as  in  the  main  stories,  the 
chief  motif  is   almost  invariably   love   or   revenge  or    personal  i 

bravery.  The  same  remark  applies  obviously  enough  to  Greek 
Heroic  poetry — to  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  as  well  as  to  the  stories 
of  Heracles,  lason  and  the  rest.  The  characteristics  too  for 
which  the  heroes  are  distinguished  are  on  the  whole  very  much 
the  same  in  both  cases — strength,  courage,  resourcefulness,  '^ 
generosity,  hospitality.  The  characters  of  Beowulf  and  Hrothgar 
may  appeal  to  us  more  than  those  of  Achilles  and  Nestor,  but 
the  main  outlines  are  very  similar.  If  there  is  any  difference  , 
worth  noting  in  this  respect  between  the  two  sets  of  poems  it  is 
that  the  Greek  attach  more  importance  to  personal  beauty — a 
feature  which  only  becomes  prominent  in  the  later  forms  of  the 
Teutonic  stories. 

Now  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  heroes  of  '  post-heroic ' 


^- 


¥r 


334  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY        [CHAF. 

times.  During  the  centuries  which  immediately  followed  the 
Heroic  Age  we  hear  of  many  princes  and  other  persons  who 
rose  to  fame  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent.  Sometimes 
this  fame  was  acquired  through  successful  warfare ;  but  it  is  as 
generals  rather  than  as  warriors  that  such  persons  are  celebrated. 
More  frequently  they  are  known  to  us  as  legislators,  founders 
of  institutions,  promoters  of  religion  and  protectors  of  the  public 
peace.  In  this  country  we  may  think  of  such  persons  as  the 
Kentish  king  Aethelberht,  the  Northumbrian  kings  Edwin  and 
Oswald,  the  Mercian  king  Offa,  and,  above  all,  of  Alfred  the 
Great — not  to  mention  numerous  prominent  ecclesiastics.  In 
Greece  the  number  of  names  known  to  us  during  the  correspond- 
ing period  is  extremely  small.  Yet  the  most  prominent  names 
which  we  meet  with  at  the  dawn  of  the  historical  period  are 
those  of  legislators  and  public  benefactors,  such  as  Zaleucos  and 
Solon.  In  earlier  times  by  far  the  best  known  name  is  that  of 
the  Spartan  legislator  Lycurgos,  whether  he  was  really  a  historical 
person  or  a  character  of  mythical  origin.  We  may  perhaps 
compare  him  with  that  Wiger  Spa,  *  a  heathen  in  the  heathen 
age,'  whose  authority  is  referred  to  in  King  Byrger's  preamble 
to  the  Law  of  the  Uppland  Swedes. 

A  similar  character  is  borne  by  the  traditional  heroes  of 
nations  which  have  no  Heroic  Age.  We  may  instance  Bruteno 
and  Widowuto  the  legendary  founders  and  legislators  of  the 
state  of  the  ancient  Prussians.  The  same  is  true  of  the  early 
kings  of  Rome,  Romulus,  Numa,  Servius  Tullius  and  the 
founders  of  the  Republic.  The  essential  feature  which  dis- 
tinguishes these  characters  from  those  of  the  Heroic  Age  is  the 
fact  that  they  are  known  chiefly,  not  for  what  they  performed  or 
experienced  during  their  lives,  but  for  the  effects  of  their  doings 
upon  later  generations. 

The  explanation  of  this  difference  is  no  doubt  to  be  sought 
largely  in  the  nature  of  the  records.  For  a  modern  analogy  to 
the  stories  of  SigurSr  or  Achilles  we  should  turn  naturally  to  a 
romance  or  novel ;  for  those  of  Offa  or  Lycurgos  analogy  would 
be  sought  rather  in  the  biography  of  a  statesman'.     But  it  must 

*  This  analogy  applies  perhaps  also  to  the  objects  aimed  at  in  the  two  sets  of 
records.    Within  certain  limitations  it  may  be  said  that  the  object  of  the  heroic  stories 


I 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY  335 

be  clearly  recognised  that  the  difference  here  does  not  lie  be- 
tween historical  and  unhistorical.  Attila  was  a  man  of  flesh  and 
blood,  no  less  certainly  than  Offa,  while  the  historical  existence 
of  Lycurgos  is  as  much  debated  as  that  of  Achilles.  And  what 
shall  we  say  with  regard  to  such  a  character  as  Romulus  ?  The 
difference  lies  rather  between  political  and  non-political,  or — to 
speak  more  accurately — between  national  and  non-national. 
-r-Offa's  fame  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  aggrandisement 
and  reorganisation  of  the  Mercian  kingdom.  Lycurgos  and 
Romulus  are  scarcely  conceivable  without  Sparta  or  Rome. 
But  SigurSr  and  Achilles  might  belong  to  any  Teutonic  or  Greek 
community ;  in  the  former  case  indeed  the  hero's  nationality  is 
not  known  for  certain.  (We  have  seen  thatVhe  heroic  poetry  of 
the  Teutonic  peoples  had  what  may  be  called  an  international 
circulation  from  the  beginning ;  and  we  have  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  in  the  Heroic  Age  itself  the  same  was  the  case  in 
Greece.  On  the  other  hand  the  memory  of  the  later  heroes  and 
their  achievements  was  preserved  only,  or  almost  only,  in  the 
records  and  traditions  of  individual  states.  The  interest  to  which 
stories  of  this  latter  group  appeal  is  in  general  limited  to  the 
hero's  own  state  ;  we  have  no  evidence  that  such  stories  were 

is  to  entertain  and  that  of  unheroic  records  to  instruct.     The  latter  remark  holds  good    S'9'^^' 

not  only  for  historical  works  but  also  for  tribal  traditions  and  tribal  law.     It  is  likely 

that  opportunity  was  taken  to  impart  instruction  of  this  type  at  festal  gatherings.    We 

may  quote  a  passage  from  Praetorius'  Deliciae  Prussicae  (ed.  Pierson,  p.  24)  relating 

to  a  festal  gathering  of  young  people  at  a  time  when  the  Prussian  Lithuanians  had  not 

yet  been  entirely  converted.      "  Darauf  haben  sie   sich  um  die   Eiche  und  Stein 

niedergesetzt,  der  Weydulut  aber  uf  den  Stein  das  Fell  gelegt,  sich  darauf  gesetzet, 

einen  Sermon  gehalten  von  ihrem  Herkommen  und  alten  Gebrauchen,  Glauben  p.  p., 

den  Zemyna,  den  Perkuns  und  andere  mehr  genennet."     There  is  abundant  evidence 

for  the  existence  of  similar  traditions  among  the  Teutonic  peoples  from  the  earliest 

times — for  which  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  Dr  Schtitte's  interesting  book  Oldsagn 

om  Godtjod  (especially  pp.    118 — 197).     But  in  heroic  poetry,  whether  Teutonic  or  ,    ■ 

Greek,  references  to  the  early  traditions  of  a  nation  are  extremely  rare  and  practically      \ 

limited  to  the  ancestors  of  the  royal  family,  while  '  law  '  is  the  will  of  the  ruler.     For      \^ 

Greek  parallels  we  must  turn  to  works  of  the  Hesiodic  school  and  the  elegiac  poets. 

With  regard  to  historical  works  we  have  to  remember  that  all  records  dating  from 
the  Heroic  Age  are  of  foreign  origin.  But  it  is  certainly  to  be  noted  that  the  interest 
of  the  stories  given  by  Gregory  of  Tours  and  other  writers  of  the  sixth  century — in  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  persons  of  Teutonic  blood — is  essentially  personal,  and  similar  to 
that  which  characterises  the  poems.  This  is  the  more  noteworthy  since  these  stories 
are  related  from  a  totally  different  point  of  view  (cf.  p.  338  f.). 


/nil 


336  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC    POETRY       [CHAP. 

international  property'.  It  is  the  fact  that  the  interest  of  the 
heroic  stories  was  both  individual  and  universal — i.e.  that  it  lay 
in  individuals  not  essentially  bound  up  with  a  given  community 
— which  fitted  them  for  international  circulation. 

But  this  difference  of  interest  is  itself  a  matter  which  calls 
for  explanation.  If  we  are  to  trust  the  evidence  of  the  records 
it  is  due  to  differences  in  the  ideas  which  animated  heroic  and 
non-heroic  society^  Among  these  we  may  note  especially  an 
essential  difference  in  the  conception  of  the  statp.  ^Vith  this 
question  we  shall  have  to  deal  more  fullyJjL-a  later  chapter. J(^It 
may  be  indicated  here  however  thamilnie  Heroic  Age  the  state 
appears  to  have  been  regarded  as  little  more  than  the  property 
of  an  individual — or  rather  perhaps  of  a  family,  which  itself  was 
intimately  connected  with  a  number  of  other  families  in  similar 

^  Except  in  so  far  as  (in  the  case  of  Teutonic  stories)  they  are  connected  with  the 
Church. 

2  I  would  call  attention  here  to  an  interesting  paper  by  Prof.  Heusler  (S.-B. 
d.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  zu  Berlin,  1909,  p.  920  fif. ),  in  which  he  seeks  to  show  that  the 
historical  element  in  Teutonic  heroic  poetry  has  been  exaggerated.  The  evidence 
adduced  in  favour  of  this  view  consists  in  the  first  place  of  unhistorical  situations, 
chronological  dislocations,  etc.  Most  of  the  examples  are  taken  from  the  later  forms 
of  the  stories  (Stage  IV  of  our  scheme).  We  have  already  discussed  these  phenomena 
(p.  152  ff.),  and  here  I  would  only  add  that  the  observation  quoted  from  Prof.  Murko's 
paper  on  p.  936,  note,  may  be  applied,  viutaiis  mutandis,  to  chronological  as  well  as 
geographical  relations.  What  interests  us  here  however  is  the  second  piece  of  evidence 
brought  forward  by  Prof.  Heusler  (p.  924  f.).  He  fully  recognises  and  admirably 
expresses  the  individualistic,  non-national  spirit  of  Teutonic  heroic  poetry — as  con- 
trasted  with  that  of  the  Old   French  epics:    "  Es  herrschen   in   unsrer   Sage   die 

personlichen  Ideen" "Die  germanische  Sage  kennt  keinen  Nationalfeind,"  etc. 

Yet  apparently  he  regards  this  phenomenon  ('die  personliche  Fabel')  as  a  characteristic 
of  the  poetry  only,  and  not  of  the  society  which  produced  it.  Now  in  order  to  prove 
that  this  is  an  '  unhistorical '  element  evidence  must  be  brought  to  show  that  the 
attitude  of  the  poems — the  early  poems  (Stage  II) — does  not  faithfully  reflect  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  I  know  of  no  evidence  to  justify  so  startling  a  conclusion ;  on  the 
contrary  we  shall  see  in  the  following  chapters  that  contemporary  historical  works 
frequently  testify  to  the  prevalence  of  the  same  ideas  which  we  find  expressed  in  the 
poems.  Even  the  statement  that  Teutonic  heroic  poetry  is  '  unpolitical'  seems  to  me 
to  require  some  reservation.  Certainly  it  knows  nothing  of  modem  ideas  of  politics. 
But  have  we  any  ground  for  disputing  that  it  represents  the  politics  current  in  the 
courts  in  which  it  grew  up?  Lastly,  objection  must  be  taken  to  the  contrast  drawn 
on  p.  933  between  Teutonic  and  Greek  heroic  poetry.  So  far  as  the  Homeric  evidence 
is  concerned  the  observations  made  here  apply  not  to  the  poems  as  we  have  them  but 
to  certain  hypotheses  regarding  their  '  pre-history,'  with  which  we  have  dealt  above 
(p.  267  ff.). 


I 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY  337 

positions.  The  decline  and  disappearance  of  kingship  in  Greece 
during  the  eighth  century  presupposes  of  course  that  such  a 
conception  had  long  ceased  to  retain  its  vitality.  And  even 
among  the  Teutonic  peoples,  which  usually  preserved  the  insti- 
tution of  kingship,  we  find  abundant  evidence  for  a  similar 
change  of  view.  Among  the  Franks  kingship  had  long  been  a 
mere  shadow  when  the  non-royal  Pippin  took  the  throne  in  752. 
In  England  we  do  not  meet  with  non-royal  kings  until  more 
than  a  century  later  ;(but  even  by  Bede's  time  it  is  clear  tha^the 
kingdom  had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  something  more  than  ^ 
the  property  of  the  royal  family. 

When  once  the  characteristics  of  the  spirit  of  the  Heroic  Age 
have  been  fully  recognised  they  will  be  found  to  explain  several 
features   in  the  stories  which  have  often  been   regarded  as  in- 
credible.    One   of  these   is    the    fact   that   wars    are   generally  \ 
represented  as  arising  out  of  the  personal  quarrels  or  jealousies  h 
of  princes,  or  out  of  wrongs   perpetrated  by  one  prince  upon   } 

__another.XThus  it  has  been  assumed  by  many  scholars  that  the 
story  of  the  abduction  of  Helen  is  of  mythical  origin,  not  on 
account  of  any  intrinsic  improbability  contained  in  it,  but  because 
it  is  founded  on  a  motif  which  is  extremely  common  in  folktales. 

(But  it  has  been  pointed  out  above  (p.  265)  that^he  reason  why 
the  abduction  motif  is  common  in  folktales  lies  m  the  fact  that 
under  unsettled  social  conditions  such  occurrences  were  common 
in  real  life.  The  conditions  of  the  Heroic  Age,  whether  Greek 
or  Teutonic,  were  doubtless  not  normally  so  unsettled  that  the 
abduction  of  a  queen  or  princess  could  fail  to  attract  attentiort 
In  the  case  of  the  wife  of  a  distinguished  king  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  such  an  event  would  produce  a  profound  sensation ; 
and  it  is  to  this,  we  may  presume,  that  the  story  in  the  first 
place  owed  its  celebrity.  But  the  part  played  by  women  in 
international  quarrels  during  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  must  not 

■-be  overlooked.,)<(ln  addition  to  the  stories  of  which  love  adven- 
tures form  the  main  theme  (cf  p.  333)  we  may  allude  to  such 
cases  as  Beow.  2930  ff.,  where  Haethcyn  is  said  to  have  carried 
off  the  Swedish  queen  with  consequences  disastrous  to  himself. 
Above  all  however  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  the  story  of  the 


338  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY        [CHAP. 

war  between  the  Angli  and  the  Warni  (cf.  p.  97  f.),  a  war  which 
owed  its  origin  to  Radiger's  repudiation  of  his  marriage  contract 
with  the  EngHsh  king's  sister.  We  have  seen  that  this  story- 
comes  not  from  a  poem,  but  from  the  work  of  a  strictly  contem- 
porary Roman  historian. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  case  stands  alone.  According  to 
Gregory  of  Tours  (III  6)  the  overthrow  of  the  Burgundian  king- 
dom was  due  to  the  instigation  of  Hrothhild,  who  implored  her 
sons  to  exact  vengeance  for  the  murder  of  her  parents — a  case 
not  unlike  the  Norse  version  of  the  story  of  HamSir  and  Sorli. 
Hildeberht's  invasion  of  Spain  was  undertaken  in  answer  to 
messages  from  his  sister  Hlothhild,  who  had  been  illtreated  by 
her  husband,  the  Visigothic  king  Amalaric  {ib.,  Ill  10).  The 
dissensions  which  eventually  brought  about  the  downfall  of  the 
Thuringian  kingdom  had  their  origin  in  the  proud  and  jealous 
character  of  Amalaberga,  the  wife  of  Irminfrith  {ib.,  Ill  4). 
Unless  we  are  prepared  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  plain  evidence 
of  history  we  are  bound  to  recognise  that  the  personal  feelings 
of  queens  and  princesses  were  among  the  very  strongest  of  the 
factors  by  which  the  politics  of  the  Heroic  Age  were  governed. 

There  has  undoubtedly  been  a  tendency  among  modern 
historians  to  neglect  the  personal  element  in  early  Teutonic 
history  and  to  concentrate  attention  upon  the  movements  of 
peoples  and  upon  'constitutional'  changes.  The  feature  with 
which  we  have  just  been  dealing  is  only  one  of  several  which 
owing  to  this  neglect  have  been  regarded  as  essentially  '  poetic ' 
motives,  the  origin  of  which  must  be  sought  in  myth  or  fiction. 
Decisive  evidence  to  the  contrary  is  furnished  by  writers  of  the 
sixth  century.  Certainly  the  picture  of  Teutonic  court  life 
which  they  give  produces  a  different  impression  from  that  which 
we  gain  from  the  poems.  The  atmosphere  suggested  by  the 
latter  is  one  of  adventure  and  romance,  whereas  the  former 
convey  an  idea  of  reckless  brutality.  Yet  it  is  only  necessary  to 
place  the  two  sets  of  records  side  by  side  in  order  to  see  that  the 
one  is  complementary  to  the  other — that  the  difference  lies  not 
in  the  subjects  treated  but  in  the  point  of  view  from  which  they 
are  regarded.  Gregory  (ll  28)  records  without  comment  or 
explanation  that  the  Burgundian  king  Gundobad  slew  his  brother 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC    POETRY  339 

Hilperic  (Hrothhild's  father)  with  the  sword  and  drowned  his 
wife  with  a  stone  tied  to  her  neck.  If  this  incident  had  been 
treated  in  heroic  poetry  we  should  doubtless  gain  a  very  different 
impression.  Different  too  would  be  the  impression  conveyed  by 
the  story  of  SigurSr,  if  we  had  it  from  a  Roman  historian.  But 
when  the  two  stories  are  compared  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
picture  which  the  poems  present  of  the  Burgundian  kingdom 
under  Guthhere  is  incompatible  with  the  picture  which  history 
gives  us  of  the  Burgundian  kingdom  under  Gundobad,  some 
fifty  years  later.  No  true  impression  of  the  Heroic  Age  can  be 
obtained  by  crediting  the  youthful  kings  of  unlearned  com- 
munities with  a  knowledge  of  political  principles  which  we  have 
acquired  from  long  study  of  the  history  of  many  nations;  and  it 
is  equally  futile  to  seek  for  grounds  of  policy  in  actions  which 
very  frequently  were  dictated  solely  by  passion.  Ambition  was 
no  doubt  a  factor,  as  in  all  stages  of  society.  But  the  form 
which  it  seems  to  have  taken  as  a  rule  was  purely  personal  and 
directed  towards  the  acquisition  of  wealth  or  glory  rather  than  with 
any  view  of  establishing  the  kingdom  upon  a  permanent  basis\ 

Another  feature  to  which  exception  has  been  taken  is  the 
fact  that  in  battle  scenes  the  fighting  is  generally  represented  as 
a  series  of  single  combats  between  the  various  leading  men. 
Here  again  the  objection  seems  to  be  based  on  a  misunderstand- 
ing of  the  conditions  of  heroic  warfare.  In  the  first  place  we 
have  no  reason  for  doubting  that  in  both  the  periods  with  which 
we  are  dealing  the  leaders  were  far  better  armed  than  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  forces.  In  hand  to  hand  fighting  the  possession 
of  defensive  armour,  helmet  and  mail-coat,  constitutes  an  over- 
whelming advantage.  Secondly,  the  passion  for  personal  glory, 
which  is  so  prominent  in  the  poems,  must  have  prompted  the 
ambitious  man  to  pick  out  the  most  distinguished  opponents. 
If  he  was  a  'squire'  success  would  bring  rich   rewards^     But 

^  As  a  typical  case  we  may  cite  the  story  of  the  Prankish  prince  Hlothric  (Greg. 
Tur.,  II  40),  who  at  Clovis'  suggestion  caused  his  own  father  to  be  murdered.  He 
oflfered  Clovis  a  share  of  the  treasures,  but  was  himself  killed  by  the  envoys  of  the 
latter  while  he  was  bending  over  his  father's  treasure-chest. 

*  In  Beow.  2991  ff.  we  are  told  that  Eofor,  who  slew  the  Swedish  king  Ongentheo, 
was  rewarded  by  Hygelac  with  the  hand  of  his  only  daughter  and  an  enormous  grant 
of  land  and  treasure. 


340  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY        [CHAP. 

even  the  leaders  themselves,  as  among  the  Germans  of  Tacitus' 
time\  were  doubtless  expected  to  distinguish  themselves  by  pre- 
eminence in  bravery,  rather  than  by  skilful  generalship.  Thirdly, 
and  this  is  the  most  important  point,  the  general  object  aimed 
at  in  a  battle  was  not  to  gain  a  strategic  advantage  but  to  kill 
the  leaders.  Very  often  this  meant  the  destruction  of  the 
enemy's  organisation.  At  times  indeed  it  appears  that  the  death 
or  capture  of  a  king  led  forthwith  to  the  end  of  hostilities.  Thus 
in  the  battle  of  Strassburg  in  357,  when  the  Romans  captured 
the  Alamannic  king  Chonodomarius,  his  personal  retinue,  to  the 
number  of  two  hundred,  gave  themselves  up  voluntarily  to  share 
his  captivity^  And  in  Beowulf  we  see  from  more  than  one 
passage  that  when  the  king  was  slain  the  heart  of  the  resistance 
was  broken.  Under  such  conditions  we  may  well  believe  that 
the  direction  to  '  fight  neither  with  small  nor  great,  save  only 
with  the  king,'  was  a  piece  of  perfectly  sound  policy. 

We  have  to  take  account  moreover  of  another  element, 
somewhat  strange  to  modern  ideas,  namely  the  intense  eagerness 
to  get  possession  of  a  fallen  enemy's  arms.  In  the  battle  scenes 
of  the  Iliad  this  feature  is  constantly  to  the  fore  ;  indeed  the 
most  severe  conflicts  usually  take  place  over  the  bodies  of 
warriors.  In  the  English  poems  it  is  much  the  same.  We  may 
quote  Beow.  2985  ff. :  "  Thereupon  the  warrior  (Eofor)  despoiled 
his  opponent.  He  took  from  Ongentheo  his  iron  mail-coat  and 
his  sharp  and  hilted  sword,  together  with  his  helmet,  and  brought 
the  old  man's  accoutrements  to  Hygelac."  And  again  v.  2613  ff.: 
"  To  him  (Eanmund)  Weohstan  brought  death  in  combat  by  the 

^  Cf.  Germ.  14:  cum  uentum  in  aciem  turpe principi  tiirtute  uinci,  turpe  comitahd 
uiriutem  principis  non  adaequare.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  princes  of  the  Heroic 
Age  did  seek  to  display  their  prowess  in  single  combats.  The  story  of  Theodric's 
combat  with  an  Avar  champion  named  Xerxer  (Fredegar,  Chron.  il  57)  appears  to  be 
based  on  an  exploit  for  which  we  have  contemporary  evidence  in  Ennodius'  Panegyric 
(p.  ■266  in  Hartel's  edition;  cf.  Jiriczek,  Deutsche  Heldensagen,  I  p.  140  f.),  where 
the  defeated  warrior  is  called  Bulgarum  ductor.  It  is  well  known  also  that  the 
princes  of  the  ancient  Gauls  were  in  the  habit  of  engaging  their  enemies  in  single 
combat.  There  is  satisfactory  historical  evidence  for  two  cases  in  which  distinguished 
Romans  proved  victorious  in  such  encounters  (cf.  D'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  La 
Civilisation  des  Celtes,  p.  17  ST.).  The  period  to  which  these  notices  refer  may  be 
described  as  a  Gaulish  Heroic  Age  (cf.  p.  427  ff.). 

^  Cf.  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xvi  12.  60. 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY  34 1 

sword's  edge ;  and  to  his  kinsmen  he  presented  the  burnished 
helmet,  the  ring-formed  mail-coat  and  the  ancient  sword  of 
giant  workmanship — though  the  latter  was  returned  to  him 
by  Onela."  It  will  be  seen  that  the  Teutonic  warriors,  who 
in  both  these  cases  are  'squires,'  render  up  the  spoils  to  their 
lords,  whereas  the  Greek  princes  keep  them  for  themselves  ; 
but  we  need  not  doubt  that  they  expected  an  equivalent  reward. 

The  article  chiefly  coveted  seems  to  have  been  the  coat  of 
mail.  In  Wald.  II  16  ff.  the  hero  says  to  Guthhere  :  "Take  from 
me  the  grey  mail-coat,  if  thou  dare ;  for  thou  seest  how  I  am 
worn  out  with  battle.  Upon  my  shoulders  here  stands  an 
heirloom  from  Aelfhere ;  good  it  is  and...,  adorned  with  gold,  a 
superb  garment  for  a  prince  to  possess,  when  his  hand  is  defending 
life's  treasure  from  his  foes."  Such  articles  were  doubtless  very 
costly,  and  often,  as  in  this  case,  they  were  handed  on  from 
generation  to  generation.  Beowulf's  coat  of  mail  had  belonged 
to  his  grandfather,  and  was  believed  to  be  the  workmanship  of 
Weland.  Before  his  encounter  with  Grendel  he  charges  the 
king  of  the  Danes  to  send  it  back  to  Hygelac  in  the  event  of  his 
death.  A  coat  of  mail  which  was  found  intact  at  Vi  in  Fyn 
contains  about  twenty  thousand  rings,  and  it  has  been  calculated 
that  such  an  article  would  take  a  single  workman  nearly  a  whole 
year  to  make^ 

It  is  to  be  remembered  further  that  wealthy  princes,  prompted 
no  doubt  by  love  of  display,  were  in  the  habit  of  carrying  about 
their  persons  a  considerable  amount  of  gold.  Glaucos  indeed  is 
said  to  have  gone  to  battle  in  golden  armour  worth  a  hundred 
oxen  (II.  VI  235  f).  Hygelac,  when  he  was  slain,  was  wearing 
the  magnificent  necklet  which  Wealhtheo  had  given  to  Beowulf 
(v.  1 195  ff ).  Historical  records  give  evidence  to  the  same  effect"^; 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  spoils  of  such  kings  often 
amounted  to  a  considerable  fortune.  If,  in  addition  to  spoils  of 
this  kind,  account  is  taken  of  the  chances  of  booty  and  ransoms, 

'  Cf.  S.  Miiller,  Nordische  Altertumskunde,  II  p.  128. 

2  Cf.  especially  Procopius'  description  of  Totila  at  his  last  battle  (Goth,  iv  31)  : 
Ti\v  re  yap  tQv  SttXuv  aKtvijv  KaraKdpus  t<^  xP'"^V  KO-TeCKrift-nivriv  -rjfj.wljx^'''^  '^"■^  "^^^  "^ 
<f>a\a.ptj}v  Kdfffios  Ik  re  rod  ttLXov  /cat  rod  ddparos  aXovpyds  re  kcu  aWws  /SaeriXet  irpiiruv 
iKpi/xaro  Oavfiaaros  offos. 


342  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF    HEROIC   POETRY       [CHAP. 

not  only  after  a  general  victory  but  also  in  incidental  and  more 
or  less  private  forays \  it  will  be  seen  that  warfare  of  the 
heroic  type  offered  very  substantial  inducements,  apart  from 
the  acquisition  of  glory. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  warfare  was  really  of  an 
effective  character.  Even  in  the  Iliad  itself  (VI  67  ff.)  a  warning 
is  raised  against  it  by  the  old  Nestor,  who  is  represented 
{ib.  II  555)  as  an  exceptionally  skilful  general,  but  his  advice 
seems  to  be  unheeded.  Between  two  armies  of  the  heroic  type 
the  issue  had  to  be  decided,  if  at  all,  by  a  pitched  battle. 
Sheltered  behind  fortifications,  even  an  inferior  army  had  not 
much  to  fear.  In  that  case  the  people  most  exposed  to  danger 
were  what  we  should  call  non-combatants — not  only  the  women 
and  children  and  unwarlike  dependents  of  the  combatants  them- 
selves^  but  also  any  neighbouring  communities  who  might  be 
caught  unawares  by  bands  of  hungry  warriors. 

On  the  other  hand  against  organised  forces,  like  those  of  the 
later  Spartans  or  the  Romans,  at  all  events  if  commanded  by 
generals  who  followed  a  definite  plan  of  campaign,  the  Homeric 
Achaeans  would  have  had  no  chance  after  the  first  encounter. 
This  may  be  seen  especially  from  the  history  of  the  campaigns 
against  the  Italian  Gauls,  who  appear  to  have  employed  a  very 
similar  method  of  warfare.  The  Saxons  and  other  northern 
peoples  owed  their  successes  largely  to  the  rapidity  of  their 
movements,  combined  with  the  fact  that  they  had  command  of 
the  sea.  But,  so  far  as  we  know,  they  seldom  or  never  had  to 
deal  with  any  considerable  Roman  army.  In  Britain  their  pro- 
cedure was  probably  similar  to  that  followed  by  the  Scandinavian 
invaders  in  the  Viking  Age ;  but  the  latter  were  unable  to  cope 

^  Even  in  time  of  peace  merchants  might  turn  into  freebooters  (cf.  Od.  xiv  262  flf). 
Piracy  indeed  was  scarcely  regarded  as  disreputable  {ib.  ni  72  ff. ;  cf.  p.  322).  The  same 
conditions  prevailed  during  the  Viking  Age  and  doubtless  also  during  the  Teutonic 
Heroic  Age. 

*  As  illustrations  of  the  barbarities  associated  with  warfare  of  this  type  we  may 
refer  to  the  speech  of  Theodric,  king  of  the  Franks,  given  by  Gregory,  in  7,  and  to 
the  behaviour  of  Theodberht's  army  in  Italy,  recorded  by  Procopius  (Goth.  Ii  25). 
At  such  a  time  the  atrocities  which  Greek  tradition  relates  in  connection  with  the  fall 
of  Troy  would  have  caused  little  comment.  Yet  the  early  heroic  poems  give  less 
evidence  even  than  the  Homeric  poems  for  cruelty  of  this  kind. 


XV]  THE   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   HEROIC   POETRY  343 

with  prolonged  and  organised  resistance,  such  as  was  offered  by 
Alfred  the  Great.  The  armies  of  the  Goths  at  the  height  of 
their  power  were  doubtless  more  formidable ;  but  they  had 
probably  learnt  much  from  long  experience  of  the  Romans, 
both  as  foes  and  allies.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  however  that 
supremacy  came  ultimately  to  the  Franks,  who  of  all  the 
Teutonic  peoples  seem  to  have  been  least  affected  by  the  spirit 
of  the  Heroic  Age. 


' 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

SOCIETY    IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE. 

The  evidence  of  the  German  poems  for  the  social  and 
political  conditions  of  the  Heroic  Age  cannot  be  regarded  as 
trustworthy  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  period  in  which  they 
were  composed.  In  principle  the  same  is  true  also  of  the  Norse 
poems.  These  reflect  the  conditions  of  the  Viking  Age  rather 
than  those  of  the  Heroic  Age,  though,  as  we  have  already  noted, 
the  difference  here  is  less  marked.  On  the  other  hand,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems  and  the  works  of  contemporary 
Roman  historians,  such  as  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  Jordanes  and 
Procopius,  we  have  valuable  evidence  from  the  early  Teutonic 
codes  of  law.  Some  of  these,  such  as  the  Lex  Salica  and  the 
Lex  Burgundionum,  date  from  the  first  half  of  the  sixth  century 
or  earlier,  i.e.  from  the  Heroic  Age  itself,  while  a  number  of 
others — in  particular  we  may  note  the  earliest  English  laws — 
belong  to  the  following  two  centuries  and  show  probably  little 
deviation  from  the  custom  of  the  Heroic  Age.  All  the  codes  of 
course  contain  certain  Roman  or  Christian  elements  ;  but  this 
influence  in  some  cases  goes  back  to  the  fifth  century  or  even 
further. 

The  chief  forces  which  governed  the  social  system  of  that 
age  were  the  bonds  of  kinship  and  allegiance.  The  influence  of 
the  former  extended  not  merely,  as  with  us,  to  rights  of  succes- 
sion and  duties  of  guardianship  over  children  and  women.  It 
was  also  the  power  by  which  the  security  of  the  property  and 
person  of  each  member  of  the  community  was  guaranteed.  If  a 
man  received  injury  or  insult,  his  kindred  were  bound  to  assist 
him   to    obtain    redress.      If   he  were  slain    they  had   to   exact 


CHAP.  XVI]  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  345 

vengeance  or  compensation  from  the  slayer.  On  the  other  hand 
not  only  the  slayer  himself  but  every  member  of  his  kindred 
became  liable  to  vengeance,  and  each  had  to  pay  his  quota 
towards  the  compensation  (wergeld),  just  as  it  was  divided 
among  the  kindred  of  the  slain — the  proportion  varying  in  both 
cases  according  to  the  degree  of  relationship.  In  case  of  blood- 
shed a  certain  sum  had  also  to  be  paid  to  the  king,  even  in  the 
earliest  times  of  which  we  have  record ;  but  this  sum  seldom 
exceeded  half  the  wergeld,  and  as  a  rule  amounted  to  con- 
siderably less. 

The  character  and  size  of  the  kindred  appear  to  have  varied 
in  different  nations.  Some  laws  speak  of  claims  to  succession 
as  remote  as  the  seventh  degree,  while  the  rights  and  duties 
connected  with  the  payment  and  receipt  of  wergelds  seem  gene- 
rally to  have  extended  as  far  as  third  cousins,  i.e.  the  descendants 
of  great-great-grandparents.  Again,  we  hear  sometimes  of  royal 
or  noble  families  which  bore  a  common  name  derived  from  some 
ancestor,  real  or  mythical,  from  whom  their  power  or  preroga- 
tives were  believed  to  be  inherited.  Such  were  the  Oescingas, 
the  Wuffingas  and  the  Icelingas,  the  royal  families  of  Kent, 
East  Anglia  and  Mercia  respectively  ;  so  also  the  Scyldungas 
(Skioldungar)  among  the  Danes,  the  Merovingi  among  the 
Franks,  and  the  Agilolfinga  and  other  noble  families  among  the 
Bavarians.  Persons  belonging  to  these  families  had  probably — 
in  some  cases  certainly — special  wergelds  ;  and  the  throne  or 
principality  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  in  some  sense 
family  property.  Some  writers  believe  that  kindreds  in  general 
were  permanent  organisations  of  this  kind,  and  that  originally 
they  held  land,  and  possibly  other  property  also,  in  common. 
But  this  view  goes  a  good  deal  beyond  what  the  facts  warrant, 
at  all  events  for  the  period  with  which  we  are  dealing.  It  is 
clear  that  at  this  time  kinship  on  both  sides  was  recognised 
everywhere ;  maternal  relatives  shared  in  the  payment  and 
receipt  of  wergelds  with  those  on  the  father's  side,  though  not 
always  in  the  same  proportion.  Moreover  the  idea  that  the 
inclusion  of  the  maternal  relatives  was  due  to  an  innovation 
cannot  be  maintained.  Thus,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
Prankish  kings  claimed  the  throne  by  direct  descent  in  the  male 


346  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

line  from  Merovechus,  there  are  clear  indications  that  Prankish 
law  in  its  earliest  form  gave  priority  to  the  mother's  side.  No 
doubt  on  the  whole  the  agnatic  system  of  relationship  had 
become  predominant  almost  everywhere  in  the  Heroic  Age ; 
but  sufficient  traces  of  the  opposite  system  remain  to  render  it 
probable  that  a  change  had  taken  place  not  so  very  far  back^ 

Any  such  change  of  course  involves — or  rather  perhaps 
implies — a  weakening  in  the  force  of  the  bonds  of  kinship  ;  and 
of  this  we  have  very  clear  evidence  in  the  Heroic  Age.  Now  it 
has  often  been  pointed  out  that  early  Teutonic  custom  seems  to 
have  made  no  provision  for  the  case  of  homicide  within  the 
kindred.  In  such  a  case  the  persons  on  whom  vengeance 
devolved  would  be  identical,  in  part  at  least,  with  those  against 
whom  it  would  be  directed — and  so  also  with  the  compen.sation. 
It  is  generally  held  that  homicide  of  this  kind  was  extremely 
rare  and  that,  when  it  did  occur,  the  slayer  was  outlawed.  That 
would  no  doubt  be  in  accordance  with  primitive  custom.  Indeed 
in  a  state  of  society  based  on  blood-relationship  the  life  of  a 
kinsman  must  be  sacred  above  all  else.  Further,  it  is  clear 
enough  that  the  shedding  of  kindred  blood  was  regarded  with 
abhorrence  in  the  Heroic  Age.  Thus  Procopius  {Goth.  II  14), 
describing  the  euthanasia  practised  by  the  Heruli,  states  that 
when  the  dying  man  has  been  laid  upon  the  top  of  the  pyre,  one 
of  his  countrymen  goes  up  with  a  dagger  and  stabs  him ;  but  he 
adds  explicitly  that  this  man  must  not  be  related  to  his  victim". 
Again,  to  take  another  point  of  view,  perhaps  the  saddest 
passage  in  Beowulf  is  that  which  relates  how  Herebald  was 
accidentally  killed  by  his  brother  Haethcyn.  But  the  aspect  of 
the  case  which  first  strikes  the  poet  is  not  one  which  would 
appeal  to  a  man  of  modern  times.  "  That  was  a  slaughter 
without  compensation,"  he  says  (v.  2441  ff.),  "the  prince  had  to 
lose  his  life  unavenged." 

Yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  instances  of  the  slaying  of  kinsmen 
seem  to  have  been  by  no  means  uncommon  in  the  Heroic  Age. 

^  Cf.  The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.  327  ff. 

2  ^vyyevi)  yap  avrij)  rov  (povia.  elvai  ov  difiit.  Cf.  Greg.  Tur.,  II  40,  where  Clovis 
says :  nee  enim  possum  sanguinem  parentum  meorum  effundere,  quod  fieri  nefas  est. 
But  this  is  represented  as  mere  hypocrisy ;  cf.  11  41,  ad  fin. 


XVl]  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC    AGE  347 

In  Beowulf  the  spokesman  of  the  Danish  kings,  Unferth,  is  said 
to  have  killed  his  brothers,  and  though  the  fact  was  a  reproach  to 
him,  it  apparently  did  not  prevent  him  from  holding  an  im- 
portant office  at  court.  In  the  same  poem  we  hear  of  dissensions 
within  the  Swedish  royal  family,  which  ended  in  death  for  both 
Onela  and  Eanmund.  According  to  the  legends  preserved  in 
Ynglingatal  this  family  had  had  a  very  bad  record  for  such 
quarrels  in  the  past.  Among  the  Goths  we  have  the  case  of 
Eormenric,  who  put  his  nephews  Embrica  and  Fritla  to  death. 
And  it  is  by  no  means  only  in  poetry  or  tradition  that  we  meet 
with  such  cases ;  historians  also  furnish  numerous  examples. 
Thus  according  to  Gregory  of  Tours  (ll  28)  the  Burgundian 
king  Hilperic  was  killed  by  his  brother  Gundobad,  while  Sigis- 
mund,  son  of  the  latter,  had  his  own  son,  Sigiric,  put  to  death 
(ill  5).  The  Thuringian  king  Irminfrith  slew  his  brother  Berht- 
hari  (III  4) ;  the  Prankish  king  Sigiberht  was  murdered  by  the 
orders  of  his  son  Hlothric  (ll  40).  Clovis  is  said  to  have  put  to 
death  a  number  of  his  relatives,  while  his  sons  and  grandsons 
were  repeatedly  involved  in  deadly  strife  ^ 

In  view  of  such  evidence  we  must  conclude  that  the  primitive 
sanctity  of  the  family  was  giving  way  in  the  Heroic  Age.  For 
the  change  of  feeling  which  was  taking  place  one  passage  in 
Beowulf  is  particularly  instructive.  In  the  struggle  between 
Onela  and  Eanmund  the  latter  was  slain  by  one  of  the  king's 
knights  named  Weohstan.  He  stripped  the  dead  man  of  his 
arms  and  brought  them  to  Onela  who  presented  them  to  him 
and  "said  nothing  about  that  deed  of  guilt  although  it  was 
his  brother's  son  whom  he  (Weohstan)  had  laid  low^"  To  the 
modern  reader  the  poet's  reflection  seems  strange  ;  for  Onela 
had  been  relieved  of  a  dangerous  foe,  who  was  trying  to  deprive 
him  of  the  kingdom.     Yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  according 

^  In  some  cases  the  deed  was  certainly  done  by  the  relative's  own  hand.     Such 
was  the  case  with  Lothair  and  the  sons  of  Chlodomer  (Greg.  Tur.,  ni  18). 
2  Beow.  2618  f.: 

no  ymb  '5a  faeh%e  spraec, 
\>eah  ^e  he  his  bro^or  beam  abredwade. 
Many  scholars  here  understand  'Safaeh^e  to  mean  not  the  encounter  between  Eanmund 
and  Weohstan,  but  the  hostility  (vendetta)  which  devolved  upon  Onela  as  Eanmund's 
kinsman ;   but  I  think  the  idea  is  rather  that  of  *  bloodguiltiness '  (towards  Onela) 
incurred  by  Weohstan.     Eanmund  was  the  son  of  Ohthere,  Onela's  brother. 


348  SOCIETY    IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

to  primitive  tribal  custom  he  ought  to  have  taken  vengeance 
upon  his  knight. 

It  is  clear  then  that  primitive  custom  was  breaking  down 
even  in  countries  far  removed  from  contact  with  Christianity 
and  Roman  civilisation.  We  cannot  tell  indeed  how  far  the 
change  was  general,  since  our  knowledge  is  practically  limited 
to  the  princely  families.  It  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that  the 
lower  strata  of  society  were  more  conservative  in  many  respects. 

The  principle  which  had  now  become  dominant,  at  least  in 
the  higher  ranks,  was  that  of  personal  allegiance.  This  principle 
was  of  course  by  no  means  new.  Even  in  Tacitus'  works  we 
hear  of  the  comites  who  lived  and  fought  in  their  lord's  service 
and  thought  it  a  disgrace  to  survive  his  death.  In  the  Heroic 
Age  however  it  is  probable  that  among  the  more  northern 
peoples  every  man,  except  the  king  himself,  had  a  lord.  In  the 
Anglo-Saxon  laws  the  lord  shares  with  the  kindred  the  duty  of 
protecting  his  men,  and  when  one  of  them  is  slain  he  receives  a 
special  payment  (the  manboi)  when  the  wergeld  was  paid  to  the 
relatives.  Also,  when  any  of  his  men  die,  at  all  events  a  man  of 
the  higher  classes,  he  is  entitled  to  the  heriot,  i.e.  the  arms  of 
the  dead  man,  which  in  theory  at  least  the  latter  had  originally 
received  from  him^ 

But  in  the  poems,  as  is  natural,  we  hear  most  frequently  of 
the  knights  who  formed  the  courts  and  retinues  of  kings  and 
princes.  As  a  summary  of  the  services  rendered  by  such  persons 
to  their  lord,  Tacitus'  brief  description  {Germ.  13)  still  holds 
good  :  their  presence  gave  him  dignity  in  time  of  peace  and 
protection  in  war.  They  dwelt  and  served  him  at  his  court  and 
joined  him  in  hunting  and  other  amusements,  while  he  rewarded 
their  services  with  gifts  of  treasure  and  arms.  In  the  descrip- 
tions of  kings  which  we  meet  with  in  the  poems  there  is  no 
characteristic — not  even  personal  bravery — which  receives  more 
commendation  than  that  of  generosity  to  their  followers.  In 
return  the  knight  was  expected  to  give  up  to  his  lord  whatever 

^  It  may  be  observed  that  in  Beow.  452  ff.  the  hero  requests  the  Danish  king  to 
send  his  mail-coat  to  Hygelac,  if  he  should  be  killed  by  Grendel.  This  mail-coat 
(described  as  Weland's  handiwork)  is  said  to  have  belonged  formerly  to  Hrethel, 
Hygelac's  father  (Beowulfs  grandfather). 


XVI]  SOCIETY   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  349 

he  gained  by  his  own  exploits — just  as  Beowulf  renders  up  to 
Hygelac  and  his  queen  the  valuable  gifts  which  he  had  received 
from  the  king  of  the  Danes.  As  an  instance  of  personal  devo- 
tion in  time  of  war  we  may  cite  the  surrender  of  Chonodomarius' 
retinue  at  the  battle  of  Strassburg — an  incident  to  which  we 
have  already  referred  (p.  340).  So  also  in  the  various  accounts 
of  the  fall  of  Hrolfr  Kraki  given  by  Scandinavian  authorities 
the  king's  knights  are  said  to  have  perished  to  a  man.  The 
same  spirit  survived  in  England  in  later  times,  as  we  see  from 
the  story  of  Cynewulf's  death,  when  in  each  of  the  two  en- 
counters only  one  member  of  the  defeated  party  was  left  alive. 
It  was  also  thoroughly  in  the  spirit  of  the  Heroic  Age  that 
Edwin's  knight,  Lilla,  acted  when  he  threw  himself  between  the 
king  and  the  assassin  and  received  a  mortal  wound  in  so  doing. 
It  was  customary  for  the  sons  of  noblemen  to  enter  the 
king's  service  at  an  early  age.  Beowulf  went  to  Hrethel's  court 
when  he  was  only  seven  years  old ;  but  this  case  may  have  been 
exceptional,  as  he  was  the  king's  grandson.  When  they  reached 
manhood'  the  king  was  expected  to  provide  them  with  estates 
or  jurisdiction  over  land,  which  would  enable  them  to  marry 
and  support  a  household  of  their  own.  Thus  Beowulf,  after 
proving  his  prowess  at  the  Danish  court,  is  presented  by  Hygelac 
on  his  return  with  seven  thousand  hides — a  considerable  pro- 
vince— together  with  a  residence  and  a  prince's  authority.  The 
grant  is  accompanied  by  the  gift  of  a  sword,  signifying  that  the 
bond  of  personal  allegiance  was  still  preserved.  Beowulf  in 
turn  presents  his  young  relative  Wiglaf  with  the  dwelling-place 
of  their  family  and  the  public  rights  appertaining  thereto.  The 
court  minstrels  Widsith  and  Deor  receive  grants  of  land  from 
their  lords.  In  two  of  these  cases  (those  of  Wiglaf  and  Widsith) 
we  are  told  that  the  estate  had  previously  been  in  the  possession 
of  the  recipient's  father;  and  we  may  probably  assume  that  such 
cases  were  not  uncommon.  Yet  it  is  plain  that  such  practices 
must  very  largely  have  destroyed  the  tribal  custom  of  succes- 
sion— at  least  in  the  higher  ranks  of  society. 

'  In  the  seventh  century  it  appears  to  have  been  customary  to  make  these  grants 
when  the  recipient  was  about  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  years  old  ;  cf.  Bede,  Hist, 
Abb.,  §§  I,  8 ;  Ep.  ad  Ecgb.,  §  11. 


350  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Those  who  had  received  grants  of  land  or  jurisdiction  did 
not  thereupon  cease  to  attend  the  court.  In  the  English  courts 
of  the  seventh  century  Bede  distinguishes  between  the  comites, 
who  already  held  office,  and  the  ministri  or  milites,  who  seem  in 
general  to  have  been  young  knights  without  such  official  posi- 
tions. The  Anglo-Saxon  version  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History 
translates  comes  by  gesi^  and  minister  or  miles  by  jyegn.  In 
poetry  both  these  words  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  though  they 
appear  to  be  used  more  or  less  indiscriminately.  It  should  be 
observed  that  the  word  }}egn  means  properly  no  more  than 
'servant^'  though  (like  knight  in  later  times)  it  came  to  be 
specialised,  while  gesi'6  is  almost  an  exact  equivalent  of  comes"^. 
In  Beowulf  however  we  meet  with  the  same  classes  under  the 
collective  terms  geogd^  and  duguS,  i.e.  youths  and  men  of  tried 
valour  respectively.  To  the  latter  may  be  assigned  such  persons 
as  Aeschere,  Hrothgar's  "confidant  and  counsellor,"  who  had 
stood  by  his  side  on  the  battlefield  ;  but  the  former  class  were 
probably  as  a  rule  in  the  majority. 

Another  characteristic  of  these  retinues,  which  deserves 
notice,  is  the  fact  that  they  were  not  always  composed  of  born 
subjects  of  the  king.  Bede  {H.  E.  Ill  14)  says  that  Oswine,  the 
popular  king  of  Deira,  attracted  young  noblemen  to  his  service 
from  all  sides  ;  and  in  the  Heroic  Age  such  cases  appear  to 
have  been  frequent.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  case  in  the 
poems  is  that  of  Weohstan,  who  took  service  under  the  Swedish 
king  Onela  and  consequently  became  involved  in  hostilities 
against  his  own  nation.  It  is  probably  due  to  the  same  custom 
that  we  find  so  many  Teutonic  chieftains  serving  under  the 
Romans  during  the  Heroic  Age.  Among  them  we  may  men- 
tion Arbogastes,  Stilicho,  Ricimer  and  Odoacer.  Most  frequently 
perhaps  the  men  who  sought  service  abroad  were  those  who  had 
either  lost  their  lords  or  had  had  to  leave  their  homes  through 
vendetta.  Such  cases  occur  frequently  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
poems ;    we   may    refer   especially    to   the   Wanderer   and    the 

1  We  may  compare  the  use  of  the  word  sluga  in  Servian  heroic  poetry  (cf.  p.  316) ; 
its  ordinary  meaning  is  '  servant.' 

*  The  same  word  is  used  in  a  similar  sense  in  the  Langobardic  laws  ;  gasindus  (or 
gasindius),  '  Gefolgsmann,'  and  so  zXso  gasindium,  '  Gefolgschaft ' ;  cf.  Bruckner, 
Quellen  und  Forschungen,  Lxxv  p.  205. 


XVI]  SOCIETY   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  35 1 

Husband's  Message.  Further,  it  appears  from  the  story  of 
Waldhere  and  Hagena  that  even  hostages  were  expected  to 
fight  for  the  prince  to  whom  they  had  been  given.  In  later 
times  we  may  compare  the  case  of  the  British  hostage  who  was 
wounded  in  the  fight  following  Cynewulf's  murder.  But  there 
are  a  number  of  other  stories  which  seem  to  indicate  that  it  was 
at  one  time  a  regular  custom  for  young  princes  to  set  out  from 
their  homes,  on  reaching  manhood,  and  to  seek  the  court  of 
some  foreign  king  with  a  view  to  marrying  his  daughter  and 
thereby  acquiring  a  share  in  the  sovereignty.  Such  incidents  are 
of  the  commonest  occurrence  in  folktales  ;  and  we  find  them 
also  in  works,  such  as  Hervarar  Saga  and  Ynglinga  Saga,  which 
claim  to  be  based  on  genuine  tradition.  It  is  in  this  light  too 
that  all  northern  authorities  represent  the  position  of  SigurSr  at 
the  home  of  GutJrun. 

What  has  been  said  above  applies  primarily  of  course  to  the 
more  northern  peoples.  The  Goths  were  early  exposed  to 
Christian  and  Roman  influence,  and  the  same  is  true  also  of  the 
Burgundians,  especially  after  their  settlement  in  Gaul.  The 
Franks  were  no  doubt  less  affected  at  first ;  but  their  customs 
seem  from  the  beginning  to  have  differed  a  good  deal  from 
those  which  we  have  been  considering.  They  too  had  retinues 
of  warriors  {antrustiones  or  homines  in  truste  regis)  attached  to 
the  kings  by  personal  service  ;  but  the  prevalence  of  lordship 
in  the  lower  ranks  of  society  is  by  no  means  so  clear.  The 
possession  of  land  also  seems  to  have  been  governed  at  first  by 
tribal  principles  and  later  by  that  of  succession  in  the  male 
line — without  reference  to  the  will  of  a  superior.  These  differ- 
ences are  doubless  connected  with  certain  features  which  distin- 
guished the  social  organisation  of  the  Franks  from  that  of  the 
other  Teutonic  peoples. 

Every  one  of  the  early  Teutonic  nations  possessed  a  more  or 
less  elaborate  social  system,  with  various  class  gradations.  These 
gradations  may  be  seen  most  clearly  in  the  sums  of  money  fixed 
for  wergelds,  for  the  compensations  fixed  for  various  injuries 
and  insults  and  for  fines  ;  in  some  cases  also  they  show  them- 
selves in  the  relative  value  attached  to  oaths.  Apart  from  slaves, 
who  do  not  come  into  consideration  in  these  matters,  the  classes 


352  SOCIETY   IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

usually  met  with  are  those  of  nobles,  freemen  and  freedmen. 
Sometimes  however  a  class  is  subdivided;  sometimes  again  one 
class  is  wanting  altogether.  Thus  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  king- 
doms, except  Kent,  there  were  two  grades  of  nobility,  apparently 
landowning  and  landless,  while  freedmen  did  not  form  a  distinct 
class.  Among  the  Franks  on  the  other  hand  we  find  no  noble 
class.  In  general  the  freeman's  wergeld  is  about  double  that  of 
the  freedman,  while  that  of  the  noble  is  twice  or  thrice  as  great 
as  the  former  ;  and  the  other  payments  usually  follow  more  or 
less  the  same  proportion.  The  actual  sums  fixed  in  the  various 
laws  differ  greatly  in  each  case,  owing  to  the  employment  of 
different  systems  of  currency.  But  it  may  be  regarded  as 
extremely  probable  that  the  normal  wergeld  of  the  freeman  was 
originally  a  hundred  head  of  cattle.  Some  nations,  further,  had 
special  wergelds  for  certain  high  officials.  Among  the  Franks 
persons  in  triiste  regis  had  threefold  wergelds,  and  the  same 
applied  to  the  ordinary  freeman  when  engaged  in  military 
service.  In  England  the  existence  of  special  official  wergelds 
is  uncertain,  at  least  before  the  great  Danish  invasion,  though 
such  persons  were  entitled  to  higher  compensations  in  other 
respects.  But  in  this  country  members  of  the  royal  families 
had  wergelds  six  times  as  great  as  those  of  the  higher  class  of 
nobles. 

All  the  above  classes  (excluding  officials  of  course)  seem  to 
have  been  as  a  rule  hereditary.  In  some  nations  indeed  the 
descendants  of  freedmen  did  become  freemen.  But  it  is  scarcely 
probable  that  this  class  everywhere  consisted  only  of  manu- 
mitted slaves  or  their  offspring.  Sometimes  we  find  the  terms 
litus,  latus,  lazzus  {laet  in  the  Kentish  laws)  in  place  of  libertus ; 
and  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  this  class  was  largely 
derived  from  subject  populations.  Its  numbers  seem  to  have 
been  very  large.  As  to  the  numbers  of  the  nobility  there  was 
apparently  great  difference  between  one  nation  and  another. 
Among  the  Bavarians  it  consisted  only  of  six  families,  including 
that  of  the  duke,  whereas  in  England  it  appears  to  have  formed 
a  considerable  element  in  the  population.  The  term  applied  to 
it  here  was  gesi^cund,  i.e.  o(  gesi^  origin  (cf.  p.  350),  which  indi- 
cates clearly  a  hereditary  official  or  rather  military  class.    Indeed 


XVI]  SOCIETY    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  353 

the  evidence  seems  to  show  that  the  population  consisted  of  two 
clearly  defined  classes,  which  we  may  describe  as  military  and 
agricultural,  and  that  all  serious  fighting  was  left  to  the  former. 
This  is  another  feature  in  which  Anglo-Saxon  custom  differed 
from  that  of  the  Franks,  whose  armies  in  the  sixth  century  appear 
to  have  been  of  a  more  truly  national  or  even  tribal  character. 
With  regard  to  the  other  nations  we  have  less  information  ;  but 
it  is  probable  that  the  military  organisation  of  the  Danes  and 
other  Baltic  peoples  approximated  more  nearly  to  the  English 
type. 

In  Homeric  society  we  find  the  same  forces  operative  as  in 
that  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age.  The  duty  of  protecting  or 
avenging  one's  relatives  is  frequently  mentioned.  Thus  in 
Od.  XVI  97  f.  the  disguised  Odysseus  says  to  Telemachos : 
"  Hast  thou  fault  to  find  with  thy  brethren,  for  it  is  in  them 
that  a  man  trusts  to  do  battle,  even  if  a  great  quarrel  takes 
place?"  Telemachos  replies  (v.  115  ff.):  "Nor  have  I  fault  to 
find  with  my  brethren,  in  whom  a  man  trusts  to  do  battle,  even 
if  a  great  quarrel  takes  place.  For  our  family  has  been  reduced 
to  one  man  by  the  son  of  Cronos,  as  I  will  tell  thee.  Arceisios 
begat  one  only  son  Laertes,  and  Odysseus  again  was  the  only  son 
begotten  by  his  father ;  but  Odysseus  begat  me  only  and  left  me 
in  his  palace  without  profit  to  himself.  Hence  there  are  now 
innumerable  enemies  in  our  house." 

The  duty  of  vengeance  is  clearly  recognised  by  Nestor  in 
Od.  Ill  196  ff.  :  "  How  good  a  thing  it  is  for  even  a  dead  man's 
child  to  survive !  For  he  (Orestes)  also  took  vengeance  on  his 
father's  slayer,  the  crafty  Aigisthos,  who  killed  his  famous 
father."  It  was  in  order  to  escape  such  a  fate  that  Theoclymenos 
besought  Telemachos  to  take  him  on  his  ship  {ib.  XV  272  ff.) : 
"  I  also  have  left  my  country,  having  killed  a  man  of  my  own 
tribe  (or  'people').  And  in  Argos,  the  pastureland  of  horses,  he 
had  many  brethren  and  kinsmen  who  hold  great  authority 
among  the  Achaeans.  I  have  taken  to  flight  and  so  evaded 
death  and  black  fate  at  their  hands  ;  for  it  is  still  my  lot  to 
wander  among  men.  Now  take  me  on  thy  ship,  since  I  have 
come  to  thee    as   a  fugitive  and  suppliant,  lest  they  kill   me 


354  SOCIETY    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

outright ;  for  I  am  sure  they  are  in  pursuit."  We  are  reminded 
here  of  the  story  of  Ecgtheo,  the  father  of  Beowulf,  who  fled  for 
protection  to  the  Danish  king  Hrothgar  owing  to  a  similar 
cause  (Beow.  459  ff.).  Another  case  of  such  exile  occurs  in 
II.  XIII  695  ff.  (XV  334  ff.) :  "  He  (Medon)  dwelt  in  Phylace,  away 
from  his  own  fatherland  ;  for  he  had  slain  a  man,  the  kinsman 
of  his  stepmother  Eriopis,  whom  Oileus  had  to  wife."  We  may 
compare  also  II.  xv  430  ff.  where  Hector  slays  "Lycophron,  the 
son  of  Master,  the  Cytherian  squire  of  Aias,  who  dwelt  with 
him ;  for  he  had  slain  a  man  in  divine  Cythera." 

Among  the  Homeric  Greeks,  as  in  northern  Europe,  com- 
pensation for  manslaughter  could  be  made  to  the  dead  man's 
relatives.  Thus  in  II.  IX  632  ff.  Aias  says  to  Achilles:  "And 
yet  one  accepts  compensation  from  a  man  who  has  slain  one's 
brother  or  for  the  death  of  a  son.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that 
the  one,  when  he  has  paid  a  large  compensation,  remains  in 
his  own  land,  while  the  other,  after  he  has  accepted  the  com- 
pensation, restrains  his  feelings  and  his  proud  spirit."  Again, 
in  the  description  of  Achilles'  shield  we  find  a  scene  {ib.  XVIII 
497  ff.)  representing  a  dispute  over  the  payment  of  a  wergeld. 
"  The  folk  were  gathered  in  the  assembly  place ;  for  there 
a  strife  was  arisen,  two  men  striving  about  the  blood-price 
of  a  man  slain ;  the  one  claimed  to  pay  full  atonement, 
expounding  to  the  people,  but  the  other  denied  him  and  would 
take  naught ;  and  both  were  fain  to  receive  arbitrament  at 
the  hand  of  a  daysman \"  In  this  case  the  transaction  takes 
place  before  certain  elders,  one  of  whom  is  to  receive  a  payment 
of  two  talents,  apparently  as  a  reward  for  bringing  about  an 
agreement.     There  is  no  mention  of  any  payment  to  the  king^ 

From  the  passage  relating  to  Theoclymenos  quoted  above 
(v.  273  :  TToWot  Kaa-iyvTjTOi  re  erai  re)  we  may  probably  infer  that 
the  duty  of  vengeance  extended  beyond  the  brothers  of  the 
slain  man  ;  and  evidence  to  the  same  effect  is  given  by  the  story 
of  Tlepolemos  (II.  II  661  ff.).  But  it  is  not  at  all  clear  how  many 
degrees  of  relationship  were  either  involved  in  this  duty  or 
entitled  to  compensation.     Indeed  the  poems  give  us  very  little 

^  Quoted  from  the  translation  by  Lang,  Leaf  and  Myers. 

^  The  interpretation  of  Hesiod,  fV.  and  D.  38  f.,  need  not  be  discussed  here. 


XVI]  SOCIETY   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  355 

information  regarding  the  character  of  the  kindred.  Patronymic 
forms  such  as  'Ar/aetSr;?^  are  very  common  and  correspond  in 
use  to  Anglo-Saxon  forms  such  as  Hre^ling,  Wonrediyig.  But 
they  are  almost  always  used  of  individuals  or  of  a  pair  of 
brothers  ('ArpelSa,  Soiol  'iTnraalSat).  Collective  names  for 
families,  such  as  'HpaKXetBat,  UeXoirlSac,  seem  not  to  occur  in 
the  Homeric  poems^  Indeed  the  patronymic  is  nearly  always 
derived  from  the  name  of  the  father.  Cases  where  they  are 
taken  from  the  grandfather's  name,  e.g.  AtWi'ST;?  for  Achilles, 
appear  to  be  quite  exceptional.  This  is  a  feature  in  which 
Homeric  usage  differs  not  only  from  Teutonic  but  also,  still 
more,  from  that  of  later  times  in  Greece,  where  we  frequently 
find  families  or  kindreds  bearing  patronymic  names  derived 
from  a  remote  ancestor.  As  examples  we  may  mention  the 
Aigeidai  at  Sparta  and  the  Philaidai  at  Athens. 

But  the  difference  between  Homeric  and  later  usage  in  this 
respect  does  not  seem  to  be  one  of  nomenclature  only.  At 
Athens  we  find  later  an  elaborate  system  of  '  tribes '  {(f>v\ac), 
phratries  or  'clans'  ((fiparpat)  and  'kindreds'  (yepr)),  of  which 
the  last  at  all  events  were  supposed  to  rest  on  a  basis  of  blood- 
relationship,  involving  common  religious  rites.  Divisions  of  a 
more  or  less  similar  type  seem  to  have  existed  in  the  other 
Greek  states.  In  the  Homeric  poems  however  we  find  extremely 
little  evidence  for  anything  of  this  kind.  The  clearest  case  is  in 
II.  II  362  f ,  where  Nestor  instructs  Agamemnon  as  follows  : 
"  Divide  thy  men  according  to  tribes  and  clans,  Agamemnon, 
that  clan  may  render  succour  to  clan  and  tribe  to  tribe^"  In 
the  battle  scenes  we  hear  little  of  any  such  organisation,  though 
this  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  attention  is  entirely  concen- 
trated upon  the  leaders.     But  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  word 

*  The  other  types  (e.g.  U-riXeluv,  TeXa/Juivioi)  are  less  frequent. 

*  KaSfieioi,  Kadfielwves  are  at  best  very  dubious  examples,  for  Cadmos  is  probably 
to  be  regarded  as  an  eponymous  national  hero,  like  Dardanos. 

^  Kpiv'  dvSpai  /card.  <pv\a,   Kara  (ppTjrpa^,    Ay d/j-e/JLVOv, 

(l)s  <t>p-f^pi)  <ppT)Tp7)<piv  dpriyrj,   <pv\a  8i  <f>v\ois. 
Cf.  Tacitus,  Germ.  7  :  quodque  praecipuum  fortiiudinis  incitanienttim  est,  non  casus 
nee  fortuita  conglobatio  turmam  aut  cuneum  facii  sedfamiliae  et  propinquitates.     But 
the  context  shows  that  the  conditions  here  are  of  a  totally  different  character  from 
those  in  the  Iliad. 


356  SOCIETY   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP- 

(fypijTpT]  occurs  only  in  this  passage'.  Again,  (f>v\ri  does  not 
occur  at  all,  except  possibly  in  the  form  KaTa<f)v\a^6v  (U.  II  668), 
while  (f)v\ov  is  a  word  of  very  vague  significance,  ranging  from 
(jjvXa  avOpdoTTwv  etc.  to  the  <^v\ov  ^ApKeiaiov,  i.e.  the  descendants 
of  a  man  whose  son  is  still  alive^  The  same  is  true  also  of 
r^evo<i.  Lastly,  there  is  no  evidence  for  any  religious  rites 
peculiar  to  certain  families  or  clans. 

It  would  be  rash  of  course  to  conclude  from  this  that  the 
clan  and  family  system  of  later  times  was  unknown  in  the  age 
of  the  poems  ;  for  in  itself  it  bears  every  mark  of  antiquity. 
But  there  must  be  some  reason  for  the  neglect  with  which  it 
is  treated  in  the  poems.  If  we  examine  individual  cases  we 
find  that  scarcely  any  heroes  claim  an  ancestry  of  more  than 
three  generations.  The  Achaean  families  with  the  longest 
history  are  those  of  Agamemnon  and  Odysseus ;  but,  if  we 
are  to  believe  post-Homeric  tradition,  the  former  changed  its 
territories  after  the  time  of  Pelops. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  succession.  In  Ithaca 
the  throne  seems  to  pass  in  the  regular  paternal  line;  and, 
though  there  is  really  no  king  after  the  retirement  of  Laertes, 
it  is  generally  expected  that  the  young  Telemachos  will  even- 
tually take  his  place  (Od.  I  386  f.,  II  14).  Similarly  Nestor  has 
succeeded  his  father  Neleus,  while  Idomeneus  apparently  occu- 
pies the  throne  formerly  held  by  his  father's  father,  Minos.  On 
the  other  hand,  according  to  the  story  told  by  Glaucos  (II.  VI 
192  f),  Bellerophon,  a  stranger,  received  half  the  kingly  rights 
in  Lycia  with  the  hand  of  the  king's  daughter.  Moreover  all 
post- Homeric  authorities  agree  that  Menelaos  received  the 
throne  of  Sparta  by  marriage,  from  his  father-in-law  Tyndareos. 
Similar  stories  are  told  of  Tydeus,  Telamon,  Peleus,  Teucros 
and  many  others^  It  is  to  be  observed  that,  though  these 
stories  do  not  occur  in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  they  do  not 
conflict  with  any  evidence  to  be  found  there.     Many  of  them 

^  But  cf.  II.  IX  63,  where  the  word  ^(pp^Tup  occurs,  apparently  with  reference  to 
the  same  institution. 

2  The  meaning  of  the  word  IfKpvXov  in  Od.  xv  273  seems  to  be  quite  ambiguous. 

^  Cf.  Frazer,  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Kingship,  p.  238  ff.  The  story 
of  Peleus  and  Eurytion  bears  rather  a  close  resemblance  to  that  of  Bellerophon. 


XVI]  SOCIETY   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  357 

can  be  traced  back  to  the  seventh  century,  indeed  probably  to 
the  eighth. 

If  we  are  to  trust  post-Homeric  authorities  it  would  seem 
that  the  wife  remained  in  her  parents'  home  quite  as  often  as 
she  went  to  that  of  her  husband.  This  state  of  things  however 
points  to  the  prevalence  of  a  cognatic  organisation  of  society. 
In  the  case  of  Bellerophon  indeed  there  can  scarcely  be  any 
doubt;  for  the  Lycians  reckoned  descent  through  the  mother 
down  to  the  time  of  Herodotus.  The  historian  himself  (I  173) 
remarks  on  the  custom  as  strange  and  without  parallel  elsewhere 
— from  which  we  may  probably  infer  that  it  had  disappeared 
altogether  from  Greece  before  his  time.  Yet  in  one  Greek 
community  we  have  evidence  almost  as  explicit.  According 
to  Polybius,  Xll  5,  the  Epizephyrian  Locrians  stated  that  with 
them  all  ancestral  honours  were  derived  from  women  and  not 
from  men,  and  that  even  then  (i.e.  in  the  second  century)  their 
nobility  traced  their  descent  from  certain  women  of  'the  hundred 
families,'  who  had  taken  part  in  the  foundation  of  the  colony. 
*The  hundred  families'  were  those  which  before  this  time  had 
been  selected  by  the  Locrians  (i.e.  the  Hypocnemidian  Locrians) 
as  the  families  from  which  they  were  to  choose  the  virgins  who 
were  to  be  sent  to  I  lion.  This  story  seems  to  imply  that  cognatic 
organisation  survived  in  Locris  down  to  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century^  In  other  states^,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  we  find 
only  traces  of  the  former  existence  of  such  an  institution.  Some 
of  these  however  suggest  that  the  change  may  not  have  been  of 
any  very  great  antiquity^ 

The  Homeric  poems  themselves  contain  some  further  evi- 
dence, which  points  in  the  same  direction.  We  may  note  that 
a  number  of  heroes  are  said  to  be  sons  of  gods.  But  it  can 
hardly  be  without  significance  that  the  Lycian  prince  Sarpedon 
(daughter's  son  of  Bellerophon)  is  the  only  son  of  Zeus,  who 
belongs  to  the  story  of  the  Trojan  war,  whereas  in  the  earlier 

^  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Epizephyrian  Locrians  were  one  of  the  first,  if 
not  the  very  first,  of  all  Greek  communities  to  obtain  a  codification  of  their  laws — 
probably  indeed  within  half  a  century  of  the  establishment  of  the  colony.  This  fact 
may  perhaps  account  for  the  survival  of  primitive  institutions  among  them. 

^  Except  perhaps  in  Cos;  but  the  evidence  here  is  ambiguous. 

'  Cf.  Ridgeway,  The  Origin  of  Tragedy,  p.  190  fif. 


358  SOCIETY   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

generations  examples  are  comparatively  common.  In  post- 
Homeric  genealogies  the  succession  of  son  to  father  seems  to 
become  less  frequent  the  farther  one  goes  back. 

In  regard  to  marriage  customs  the  poems  show  a  remarkable 
absence  of  uniformity.  The  story  of  Bellerophon  is  by  no  means 
the  only  case  in  which  the  wife  remains  at  home,  even  if  we  leave 
out  of  account  such  marriages  as  those  of  Menelaos  and  Tydeus, 
upon  which  the  poems  themselves  are  silent.  Alcinoos  proposes 
a  union  of  this  kind  to  Odysseus  (Od.  Vll  311  ff.)^,  and  the  wife 
of  Iphidamas  the  son  of  Antenor  appears  to  remain  with  her 
father  (II.  XI  225  f.).  On  the  whole  however  the  other  type 
seems  to  be  decidedly  more  common.  Then  we  have  to  take 
into  account  the  use  of  the  word  eeSva.  It  is  commonly  held 
that  this  originally  denoted  the  'bride-price,'  paid  by  the  bride- 
groom to  the  relatives  of  the  bride;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  word  is  so  used  in  several  passages.  In  others  however  it 
may  at  least  equally  well  denote  presents  made  to  the  bride 
herself;  occasionally  indeed  it  appears  to  mean  presents  (i.e.  a 
dowry)  given  by  the  bride's  parents.  By  far  the  most  prominent 
case  of  course  is  that  of  Penelope;  and  here  the  question  is  com- 
plicated apparently  by  a  doubt  as  to  the  proper  person  entitled 
to  bestow  the  bride — who  is  presumed  to  be  a  widow.  Some- 
times the  decision  seems  to  rest  with  her  son,  Telemachos, 
sometimes  with  her  father — never  with  Laertes;  but  in  the  end 
she  takes  the  matter  into  her  own  hands,  after  exacting  presents 
for  herself  from  all  the  suitors.  It  has  been  well  suggested^  that 
the  ambiguity  in  the  situation  is  due  to  a  real  change  of  custom. 
But  I  am  by  no  means  convinced  that  the  ancient  custom,  now 
being  superseded,  was  one  of  real  purchase.  It  is  made  fairly 
clear  (Od.  I  396  ff.,  XV  518  ff.,  XXII  49  ff.,  etc.)  that  at  least  some 
of  the  suitors  have  ulterior  objects  in  view.  That  the  throne 
should  be  conveyed  through  Penelope  seems  to  us  no  doubt  il- 
logical ;  for  Odysseus  himself  had  not  acquired  it  by  his  marriage. 

^  The  nature  of  Agamemnon's  proposal  to  Achilles  in  II.  ix  144  ff.  (286  ff.)  is  not 
quite  clear.  Achilles  is  to  choose  one  of  Agamemnon's  daughters  and  take  her  to 
Peleus'  home.  But  with  her  Agamemnon  is  to  give  seven  cities,  situated  apparently 
in  Messenia,  which  in  future  are  to  be  subject  to  Achilles.  Possibly  v.  149  is  to  be 
understood  as  introducing  a  new  (alternative)  proposal. 

2  Cf.  Cauer,  Grundfragen  d,  Homerkritik'^,  p.  292  ff. 


XVl]  SOCIETY    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  359 

But,  if  we  are  right  in  believing  that  the  type  of  marriage 
represented  in  the  story  of  Bellerophon  is  earlier  than  the  other, 
the  situation  depicted  in  the  Odyssey  is  one  for  which  ancient 
custom  could  not  have  made  provision;  indeed  in  such  a  situa- 
tion traditional  feeling  might  very  well  incline  towards  regarding 
the  queen,  even  though  a  stranger,  as  the  proper  channel  for 
conveying  the  succession.  Add  to  this  the  practical  considera- 
tion that  Penelope  is  apparently  the  person  actually  in  command 
of  the  treasury;  and  we  have  no  reason,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  for 
doubting  that  treasury  and  kingdom  were  as  closely  bound  up 
together  in  Heroic  Greece  as  they  were  in  the  Heroic  Age  of 
the  northern  peoples\  It  has  often  been  remarked  that  the 
position  of  women  in  the  Homeric  poems  appears  to  be  one 
of  greater  influence  and  responsibility  than  anything  we  find 
in  later  times.  But  nowhere  is  this  responsibility  made  so  clear 
as  in  the  absence  of  all  evidence  for  the  constitution  of  a  regency 
when  the  king  is  away  from  home. 

If  the  view  put  forward  above  is  correct  we  must  conclude 
that  a  change  had  been  taking  place  in  the  organisation  of 
society,  and  indeed  that  it  was  as  yet  by  no  means  complete-. 
We  have  noticed  that  the  conditions  seem  to  have  been  some- 
what similar  in  the  Heroic  Age  of  the  Teutonic  peoples.  But 
we  saw  also  that  there  the  change  was  apparently  accompanied 
by  a  relaxation  in  the  bonds  of  kinship,  which  shows  itself  es- 
pecially in  fatal  strife  between  relatives.    The  same  phenomenon 

^  We  may  compare  Beow.  ■2369  ff.,  where — in  a  situation  somewhat  analogous  to 
that  of  the  Odyssey — Hygelac's  widowed  queen  offers  both  treasury  and  kingdom  to 
the  chief  surviving  prince,  distrusting  the  ability  of  her  young  son  to  hold  his  own. 

^  That  the  type  of  organisation  which  prevailed  during  the  growth  of  Homeric 
poetry  was  agnatic  may  be  inferred  from  the  regular  use  of  the  word  irdrpi]  and  the 
(probably  older)  expression  irarpU  yala,  which  perhaps  originally  denoted  '  land  of 
one's  father '  (the  faeder  e'&el  of  Widsith,  v.  96).  But  according  to  Plato  {Republic, 
575  D)  the  Cretans  used  nrjTpii  for  irarpis.  Evidence  for  the  prevalence  of  cognatic 
organisation  in  early  times  is  furnished  by  certain  words  denoting  relationship, 
especially  dSeX^is  (originally  '  uterine  brother '),  and  a  relic  of  the  feeling  that  this 
form  of  relationship  was  closer  seems  to  be  preserved  in  II.  xxi  95.  We  may  also 
take  into  account  the  formation  of  patronymics  in  -i8a,  which  appear  to  be  extended 
from  the  feminine  suffix  -c5-  by  another  suffix  (-d-)  also  properly  feminine.  In  the 
north-western  dialects  these  names  were  declined  as  feminines  (e.g.  N.  sg.  Ex<Toi8a, 
G.  sg.  UpoK\eidas).  One  can  hardly  help  suspecting  that  these  names  belonged 
originally  to  genealogies  of  the  Lycian  type. 


36o  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC    AGE  [CHAP. 

appears  in  the  Homeric  poems.  Thus  according  to  II.  II  662  f. 
Tlepolemos  slew  his  father's  mother's  brother,  Licymnios,  and 
had  to  leave  his  country  in  consequence.  Among  Achilles' 
followers  {ib.  XVI  570  ff.)  was  a  certain  Epeigeus  who  had  taken 
refuge  with  Peleus  because  he  had  killed  a  cousin  or  kinsman 
(ai/ei/rio?)  in  his  own  city.  Again  in  II.  IX  566  f  it  is  at  least 
implied  that  Meleagros  slew  his  mother's  brothers  (in  accordance 
with  the  story  found  later).  In  the  same  speech  (v  458  ff) 
Phoinix  confesses  that  he  had  been  on  the  point  of  killing  his 
own  father.  Then  there  is  the  tragic  history  of  the  house  of 
Pelops.  The  facts  stated  in  the  Odyssey  are  that  Aigisthos 
slew  Agamemnon,  his  father's  brother's  son,  and  that  Orestes, 
the  son  of  Agamemnon,  eventually  slew  Aigisthos.  The  most 
important  feature  in  this  story  is  that  here  we  have  not  only 
homicide  but  also  vengeance  within  the  kindred.  It  is  not 
actually  stated  that  Orestes  slew  his  mother;  but  from  Od.  Ill 
310  we  may  infer  at  least  that  she  perished  at  the  same  time 
as  Aigisthos.  This  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  I  suspect  that 
disagreeable  incidents  connected  with  royal  families  have  been 
suppressed  (cf  p.  238).  Later  authorities  add  many  more  in- 
stances of  homicide  within  the  kindred.  Some  of  these,  such  as 
the  '  banquet  of  Thyestes,'  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  Teutonic 
stories  which  we  know  to  be  unhistorical.  Others  again  may 
have  been  invented  to  account  for  the  presence  of  heroes  in 
districts  far  from  their  native  place.  Yet  from  the  fact  that  this 
motive  is  so  frequently  employed  we  may  conclude  that  the 
murder  of  relatives  was  nothing  very  rare. 

In  this  respect  then  the  Greek  evidence  agrees  entirely  with 
the  Teutonic.  In  both  cases  alike  the  bonds  of  kinship  seem  to 
have  lost  their  force  to  a  great  extents  But  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  among  the  Teutonic  peoples  we  have  in  general 
no  evidence  except  for  the  families  of  kings  and  royal  officials; 
in  other  ranks  of  society  the  kindred  may  have  retained  much 

^  It  is  possibly  due  to  the  same  cause  that  we  meet  with  some  curious  marriages. 
Thus  Alcinoos  is  married  to  his  brother's  daughter,  and  Iphidamas  to  his  mother's 
sister.  The  former  case  offends  against  the  principle  of  agnatic  organisation,  the  latter 
against  the  cognatic.  Some  other  heroes  (e.g.  Diomedes)  seem  to  be  in  somewhat 
similar  positions. 


XVl]  SOCIETY   IN   THE    HEROIC    AGE  361 

more  vitality — as  indeed  the  laws  seem  to  imply.  Such  may 
also  have  been  the  case  in  Greece;  for  the  Homeric  poems  are 
concerned  almost  exclusively  with  persons  of  princely  rank. 
Certainly  the  strength  and  sanctity  possessed  by  the  kindred 
in  early  historical  times  is  most  easily  to  be  explained  on  the 
supposition  that  the  tendency  which  we  have  been  discussing 
affected  only  a  limited  element  in  society^ 

The  second  of  the  two  principles  which  we  find  dominant 
in  early  Teutonic  society,  namely  that  of  personal  allegiance, 
seems  at  first  sight  to  play  by  no  means  so  important  a  part 
in  the  life  of  heroic  Greece.  But  for  the  lack  of  prominence 
assigned  to  it  there  are  special  reasons — a  different  reason  in 
the  case  of  each  poem.  In  the  Iliad,  which  deals  with  campaign 
life,  the  stage  is  so  crowded  with  kings  that  there  is  little  room 
left  for  persons  of  humbler  station.  The  only  force  indeed  of 
which  we  have  any  account  at  all  is  that  of  Achilles.  This  was 
divided  into  five  troops,  each  under  a  leader  of  its  own,  in  addi- 
tion to  Patroclos  and  Automedon.  We  saw  in  the  last  chapter 
that  the  speech  in  which  Patroclos  exhorts  his  men  to  battle  is 
entirely  in  the  spirit  of  the  Teutonic  comitatus.  The  appeal 
which  he  makes  to  them  is  not  to  any  feeling  of  patriotism, 
but  entirely  to  the  effect  that  they  should  show  their  devotion 
to  their  own  lord.  We  may  note  that  several  of  the  chief  men, 
at  all  events  Patroclos,  Automedon  and  Phoinix,  seem  to  share 
Achilles'  hut.  The  passionate  friendship  of  Achilles  and  Patro- 
clos appears  to  be  a  stronger  bond  than  any  other  relationship 
that  we  meet  with  in  the  Homeric  poems.  But  even  if  we  set 
this  on  one  side  as  something  exceptional,  the  devotion  shown 
to  Achilles  by  Phoinix  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  best 
traditions  of  Teutonic  thegnship. 

The  Odyssey  presents  us  with  the  picture  of  a  king's  house 
in  time  of  peace.  But,  though  Penelope  has  not  less  than  fifty 
women  in  the  house,  the  only  men  apparently,  besides  the  suitors 
and  their  followers,  are  Telemachos  himself,  the  herald  Medon 
and  the  minstrel  Phemios,  together  with  the  swineherd,  neatherd 
and  goatherd  who  come  with  provisions  each  day  from  a  distance. 

^  The  Locrian  case  quoted  above  (p.  357)  suggests  that  the  kindreds  may,  some- 
times at  least,  have  been  organised  on  a  cognatic  basis. 


362  SOCIETY   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

But  the  conditions  here  are  abnormal;  the  king  himself  has 
been  away  from  home  for  many  years,  and  his  son  is  only  just 
reaching  manhood.  It  is  scarcely  credible  that  a  Teutonic 
comitatus  could  have  existed  under  such  conditions.  Menelaos 
appears  to  have  something  of  a  retinue  at  his  court.  In  IV  22  f. 
we  hear  of  a  Oepaircov  named  Eteoneus,  who  seems  to  be  a  person 
of  some  rank,  as  he  is  called  Kpeleov.  In  v.  216  f.  another  6epu- 
TTcov,  Asphalion,  is  mentioned,  while  v.  37  f.  speak  of  several  of 
such  persons,  though  their  number  is  not  stated.  All  that  is 
said  of  them  seems  to  indicate  that  their  position  was  much 
the  same  as  that  of  the  thegns  in  early  Teutonic  courts.  The 
picture  of  the  Phaeacian  court  also  bears  a  general  resemblance 
to  that  of  the  Danish  court  as  described  in  Beowulf. 

The  use  of  the  word  depdircov  appears  to  correspond  almost 
exactly  to  that  of  })egn}.  In  both  cases  the  general  meaning  is 
'servant';  but,  just  as  we  find  Beowulf  described  as  Hygelaces 
Jyegn,  so  in  the  Iliad  the  term  Oepdircov  is  applied  to  such  distin- 
guished persons  as  Meriones  and  Patroclos.  The  converse  term 
ava^  also  seems  to  correspond  almost  as  closely  to  the  English 
dryhten.  Like  the  latter  it  is  used  for  the  master  of  a  slave 
(e.g.  Od.  XV  557),  while  on  the  other  hand  it  is  applied,  again 
like  dryhten,  to  the  most  important  kings — and  even  deities — 
in  relation  to  all  who  recognise  their  authority.  We  have  already 
noticed  (p.  329)  that  the  phrase  ava^  dvhpwv  seems  to  correspond 
very  closely  to  the  English  phrase  eorla  dryhten. 

There  is  little  or  no  evidence  to  show  whether  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  the  sons  of  leading  men  to  be  brought  up  at  the 
king's  court.  Patroclos  was  declared  to  be  the  depdirtov  of 
Achilles  at  an  early  age  (II.  xxill  89  f);  but  the  circumstances 
were  exceptional.  Certainly  the  depaTrovra  often  came  from 
beyond  the  king's  dominions.  Thus  Patroclos  had  come  from 
Opus  (id.  xxill  85  ff.)  and  Lycophron,  Aias'  squire,  from  Cythera 
(id.  XV  430  f).  It  is  true  that  both  these  persons  had  had  to 
leave  their  homes  owing  to  homicides  which  they  had  com- 
mitted; and  no  doubt  many  such  cases  were  due  to  circum- 
stances which  rendered   a  change  of  abode  advisable.      Thus 

^  There  is  a  certain  amount  of  parallelism  also  between  iraipos  and  £esiS  (cf. 
p.  350).     But  the  former  has  scarcely  the  same  technical  significance  as  the  latter. 


XVI]  SOCIETY   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  363 

Phoinix  had  sought  the  protection  of  Peleus  owing  to  a  deadly- 
quarrel  with  his  father.  Yet  apart  from  such  emergencies  the 
protection  and  friendship  of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  king 
probably  offered  considerable  attractions.  We  may  refer  to 
a  somewhat  remarkable  passage  in  the  Odyssey  (iv  174  ff.), 
where  Menelaos  says  that  it  had  been  his  wish  to  bring 
Odysseus  to  his  own  country,  with  his  son  and  his  followers 
and  possessions,  adding  that  in  order  to  make  a  home  for 
him  he  would  have  ejected  the  inhabitants  from  one  of  the 
neighbouring  cities  which  were  under  his  lordship. 

Menelaos'  intention  seems  to  have  been  to  put  Odysseus 
in  the  position  of  a  dependent  prince.  We  have  seen  that 
Teutonic  kings  were  in  the  habit  of  rewarding  their  knights 
with  grants  of  jurisdiction;  and  the  same  appears  to  have 
been  the  case  with  the  kings  of  Homeric  times.  Thus  in 
II.  IX  483  f  Phoinix  says  that  Peleus  had  made  him  rich  and 
granted  him  many  followers,  and  that  he  had  made  his  dwelling 
in  a  frontier  district  as  lord  over  the  Dolopes.  This  passage 
seems  to  furnish  almost  an  exact  parallel  to  the  treatment  of 
Beowulf  by  Hygelac  (cf  p.  349).  A  similar  case  perhaps  was 
that  of  Medon,  the  son  of  Oileus,  who  according  to  II.  II  727 
commanded  the  forces  from  Methone  and  the  adjacent  dis- 
tricts, in  the  absence  of  Philoctetes,  and  who,  like  Phoinix,  was 
a  fugitive  from  his  native  land  (cf  XIII  695  ff.).  Here  too  we 
may  mention  the  case  of  Phyleus,  who  had  left  his  own  country 
and  gone  to  Dulichion  owing  to  a  quarrel  with  his  father  {ib. 
II  629),  and  whose  son  Meges  commanded  the  forces  from  that 
island.  In  many  such  cases  of  course  there  may  have  been  a 
marriage  with  a  princess  of  the  native  royal  family;  but  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  assume  that  this  was  universal.  In  the 
case  of  Phoinix  indeed  such  an  assumption  is  improbable. 

There  seems  to  be  no  actual  record  of  a  Homeric  hero  who 
left  his  home  except  under  stress  of  circumstances;  and  hence, 
after  making  all  deductions,  we  are  bound,  I  think,  to  conclude 
that  the  system  of  the  comitatus  was  not  so  highly  developed 
as  in  the  north  of  Europe.  This  is  in  full  conformity  with  the 
fact  that  kingly  families  were  apparently  much  more  numerous 
Among  the  suitors  of  Penelope  twelve  princes  belong  to  Ithaca 


364  SOCIETY   IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

alone,  an  island  of  no  great  size  and  probably  never  thickly 
populated'. 

For  a  class  of  nobility  distinct  from  the  princely  families 
we  have  no  clear  evidenced  Persons  like  Eteoneus,  the  squire 
of  Menelaos,  may  belong  to  such  a  class;  but  it  is  quite  possible 
that  they  are  princes.  We  may  refer  also  to  the  false  story  told 
by  Odysseus  in  Od.  XIII  256  ff.,  from  which  it  appears  that 
chiefs  with  small  followings  might  be  expected  to  place  them- 
selves in  the  position  of  depdirovre';  to  more  powerful  chiefs. 
But  Odysseus  does  not  here  make  clear  what  rank  he  claims  to 
have  possessed  in  Crete.  Quite  possibly  the  practice  referred 
to  might  be  somewhat  analogous  to  what  we  find  in  the  Saga 
of  Harold  the  Fair-haired,  where  a  number  of  petty  kings 
submit  to  Harold  and  take  the  rank  of  earls. 

The  same  want  of  definiteness  occurs  in  regard  to  the 
humbler  ranks  of  society.  Even  the  slave's  status  is  not  made 
particularly  clear,  while  there  is  no  reference  to  the  existence 
of  freedmen  or  to  the  practice  of  manumission'.  Slaves  are 
apparently  able  to  buy  other  slaves  on  their  own  account 
(cf,  Od.  XIV  449  ff.).  In  other  respects  however  their  position 
seems  to  be  very  similar  to  that  of  slaves  in  early  Teutonic 
society*.  Still  less  do  we  hear  of  differences  of  rank  or  status 
within  the  free  population'.  But  it  should  be  observed  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  poems  give  us  no  more  information  on  such 
matters.     Were  it  not  for  the  early  laws  and  foreign  authorities 

^  Assuming  the  Homeric  Ithaca  to  be  identical  with  the  Ithaca  of  later  times. 
If  'Same'  is  the  later  Ithaca,  the  number  of  suitors  furnished  by  this  island  is 
twenty-four. 

2  Cf.  Fanta,  Der  Staat  in  der  Ilias  unci  Odyssee,  p.  26  f.,  where  a  distinction  is 
drawn  between  higher  and  lower  nobility — the  ^aaiKrjez  being  only  a  portion  of  the 
dpiffTTJei ;  but  the  evidence  seems  to  me  inconclusive. 

^  Yet  the  promise  made  by  Odysseus  to  the  herdsmen  in  Od.  XXI  213  ff.  may 
perhaps  be  analogous  to  the  change  of  status  involved  when  a  Teutonic  slave  was 
made  a  freedman. 

■•  In  both  cases  the  household  slaves  seem  to  have  been  almost  entirely  women, 
who  were  occupied  for  the  most  part  in  grinding  corn. 

'  From  Od.  iv  644  and  vi  489  f.  it  seems  probable  on  the  whole  that  there  existed 
a  class  of  landless  freemen  corresponding  to  the  Ang.  -Sax.  geburas.  But  no  information 
apparently  is  given  with  regard  to  the  (cX^poj — whether  it  corresponded  at  all  to  the 
hide  of  the  gafolgelda  (roughly  comparable  with  the  Athenian  feiryiriji)  or  whether  it 
represented  normally  a  much  larger  estate. 


XVl]  SOCIETY   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  365 

we  should  know  nothing  of  the  distinction  between  land-holding 
and  landless  peasants,  nor  even  of  the  great  classes  of  noble, 
freeman,  slave,  etc.      The  true  explanation  seems  to  be  that 
both    sets  of  poems   alike   are    interested    only  in    persons  of* 
royal  rank. 

No  light  is  thrown  on  the  social  system  by  the  passages 
which  mention  the  payment  of  wergelds;  for  we  are  not  in- 
formed whether  these  were  fixed  by  custom  or  whether  they 
formed  the  subject  of  bargaining  in  each  individual  case.  In 
II.  XXI  79  f.  Lycaon  says  that  Achilles  had  sold  him  into 
Lemnos  for  a  hundred  oxen  and  that  he  had  been  ransomed 
from  thence  for  three  hundred.  Even  the  smaller  of  these 
sums  is  of  course  much  too  great  for  an  ordinary  slave's  price. 
In  the  light  of  Teutonic  custom  it  is  possible  that  both  repre- 
sent standard  wergelds,  regarded  as  man-values  in  general ;  but 
one  can  hardly  say  that  it  is  more  than  a  possibility.  The 
silence  of  the  poems  upon  this  subject  is  nothing  surprising, 
for  the  Teutonic  poems  yield  us  no  more  information. 

We  may  now  briefly  summarise  the  results  of  this  dis- 
cussion. The  salient  characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age,  both 
in  Greece  and  in  northern  Europe,  appears  to  be  the  disinte- 
gration of  the  bonds  of  kinship,  a  process  which  shows  itself 
chiefly  in  the  prevalence  of  strife  between  relatives,  and  which 
in  both  cases  is  probably  connected  with  a  change  in  the 
organisation  of  the  kindred — agnatic  relationship  having  come 
gradually  to  take  the  place  of  cognatic.  How  far  this  process 
affected  society  as  a  whole  we  cannot  tell,  since  our  evidence 
is  generally  limited  to  the  royal  families.  The  binding  force 
formerly  possessed  by  kinship  was  now  largely  transferred  to 
the  relationship  between  'lord'  and  'man'  {dryhten — jyegn,  ava^ 
— OepaTTcou),  between  whom  no  bond  of  blood-relationship  was 
necessary.  The  comitatiis  was  probably  not  developed  in  Greece 
to  the  same  extent  as  it  was  in  northern  Europe;  indeed  in 
regard  to  social  development  generally  the  conditions  in  Greece 
seem  to  have  been  more  primitive.  Yet  in  individual  cases  the 
bond  between  lord  and  man  was  apparently  the  strongest  force 
of  which  we  know. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

GOVERNMENT    IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE. 

During  the  Heroic  Age  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  kingship 
appears  to  have  been  practically  universal.  The  Old  Saxons 
may  have  formed  a  solitary  exception  to  the  general  rule ;  but 
our  knowledge  of  this  people  really  begins  only  towards  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  various  powers  possessed 
by  the  kings,  but  it  is  still  by  no  means  clear  what  they  could 
not  do,  so  long  as  they  had  a  powerful  and  contented  body  of 
personal  followers.  If  they  forfeited  the  allegiance  of  their 
retinues  by  violence  or  outrage  their  power  of  course  was  gone 
at  once.  In  the  course  of  the  eighth  century  several  English 
kings  were  killed  or  expelled  by  their  retinues  ;  and  in  Beowulf 
(v.  902  ff.;  cf  V.  1709  ff.)  we  hear  that  a  former  king  of  the 
Danes  named  Heremod  had  met  with  a  similar  fate.  But  in 
early  times  such  cases  do  not  seem  to  have  been  common. 
Again,  the  numbers  of  the  retinue  might  decrease  through  want 
of  generosity  or  excessive  love  of  peace  on  the  king's  part,  and 
he  vk'ould  then  be  exposed  to  the  attack  of  any  aggressive  neigh- 
bour or  of  some  member  of  his  own  family  whom  he  had  offended. 
The  only  definite  statement  however  which  we  possess  regarding 
a  limitation  of  the  king's  authority  is  a  passage  in  Ammianus 
Marcellinus'  history  (xxviii  5.  14)  referring  to  the  Burgundians 
—  before  their  conversion  —  according  to  which  kings  were 
regularly  deposed  as  a  consequence  of  unsuccessful  war  or 
famine.  The  context,  though  not  plainly  expressed,  seems  to 
suggest  that  this  deposition  was  carried  out  by  the  decision  or 
through  the  agency  of  a  high-priest  whose  authority  was  per- 
manent. 


CH.  XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  367 

The  Statement  that  the  kings  of  the  Burgundians  were 
deposed  on  account  of  famine  points  to  the  survival  of  a  primi- 
tive idea  of  kingship,  which  credited  the  ruler  with  superhuman 
powers.  The  kings  of  the  Swedes  also,  according  to  Ynglinga 
Saga,  cap.  47,  were  believed  to  have  control  over  the  seasons', 
like  the  god  Frey  from  whom  they  claimed  descent ;  and  it  is 
said  that  two  of  them  were  sacrificed  in  times  of  famine.  In 
the  same  saga,  cap.  20,  it  is  stated  that  the  members  of  this 
dynasty  individually  were  called  Yngvi,  a  name  of  the  ancestral 
god^ — which  seems  to  indicate  that  they  were  regarded  as  his 
representatives.  How  far  such  ideas  were  general  during  the 
Heroic  Age  it  is  impossible  to  say,  owing  to  the  fact  that  we 
have  few  records  dating  in  their  present  form  from  heathen 
times.  Note  may  be  taken  however  of  the  peculiar  position 
occupied  by  the  later  Merovingian  kings^*.  During  the  last 
century  of  their  existence  as  a  dynasty  their  power  was  entirely 
taken  from  them  and  transferred  to  a  viceroy  (commonly  known 
as  maior  domus) — whose  office  became  practically  hereditary  in 
one  family.  The  only  duties  which  were  retained  by  the  kings 
were  certain  ceremonial  functions,  which  point  to  a  more  or  less 
sacral  character,  so  far  as  was  possible  in  a  Christian  community. 
We  may  note  further  that  in  the  North  there  is  no  evidence  for 
a  specifically  priestly  class  ;  temporal  and  spiritual  power  were 
apparently  united  in  the  same  person.  Among  the  Angli  on 
the  other  hand  there  was  such  a  class,  though,  in  contrast  with 
the  Burgundians,  the  high-priest  seems  to  have  been  subordinate 
to  the  king^ 

'  For  analogies  to  this  belief  cf.  Frazer,  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  the 
Kingship,  p.  112  flf.  Especially  interesting  parallels  are  to  be  found  in  the  region 
of  the  Congo  ;  cf.  Pinkerton,    Voyages  and  Travels,  Vol.   xvi.   pp.  330,   577. 

^  Frequently  used  in  poetry.  The  god's  full  name  seems  to  have  been  Yngvifreyr 
or  Ingunarfreyr,  both  of  which  occur  occasionally  (cf.  The  Origin  of  the  English 
Nation,  p.   231). 

^  We  may  compare  Ibn  Fadhlan's  account  of  the  king  of  the  (Scandinavian) 
Russians,  who  never  put  his  foot  to  the  ground.  His  duties  also  were  discharged 
by  a  viceroy.  Cf.  Frahn,  Ibn  Foszlan^s  und  anderer  Araber  Berichte  iiber  die  Russen 
dlterer  Zeit,  pp.  21,  23. 

■*  The  priesthood  figures  very  prominently  in  Tacitus'  Germania.  But  it  is  not 
safe  to  assume  that  the  conditions  described  there  are  necessarily  more  primitive  than 
those  which  we  find  in  much  later  times  in  the  North. 


368  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

In  Sweden  there  was  a  form  of  election  for  kings,  which  may 
have  had  a  religious  significance.  The  electors  (the  lawman 
and  twelve  others  from  each  province)  stood  on  huge  stones 
(Morastenar),  fixed  in  the  earth,  which  may  still  be  seen  at 
Hammarby  near  Upsala.  Saxo  (p.  lo  f )  records  the  former 
existence  of  a  similar  custom  in  Denmark.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Prankish  custom  of  hoisting  a  new  king  on  a  shield  probably 
meant  no  more  than  a  proclamation  of  lordship,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  first  recorded  instanced  Whatever  the  formalities 
employed,  it  appears  that  in  practice  the  reigning  king  was 
usually  able  to  secure  the  succession  for  his  son  ;  but  failing 
such  the  nearest  male  relative  acceptable  to  the  court  would 
normally  be  chosen-.  It  was  not  an  unknown  thing  even  for 
minors  to  succeeds  Frequently  we  find  the  kingdom  shared 
by  two  or  more  brothers,  just  like  any  other  property  ;  and  on 
the  death  of  one  of  them  his  son  was  sometimes  allowed  to  take 
his  place,  as  in  the  well-known  case  of  Hrothgar  and  Hrothwulf. 
On  the  other  hand  the  survivor  might,  and  apparently  often  did, 
refuse  any  such  concession  ;  and  consequently  struggles  between 
relatives  for  the  possession  of  the  throne  were  of  not  infrequent 
occurrence. 

National  or  tribal  assemblies  figure  prominently  in  Tacitus' 
account  of  the  ancient  Germans,  and  among  several  of  the  Con- 
tinental Teutonic  peoples  they  survived  down  to  the  seventh  or 
eighth  century.  At  this  time  they  were  generally  held  in  the 
early  spring — whence  the  name  Campus  Martins  applied  to  the 
assembly  of  the  Franks.  After  the  adoption  of  Christianity 
however  they  had  come  to  be  little  more  than  military  reviews 
for  the  most  part,  though  at  the  same  time  a  meeting  of  digni- 
taries, lay  and  ecclesiastical,  was  held  for  the  transaction  of 
business.     In  much  later  times  we  meet  with  national  assemblies 

1  Tacitus,  Hist.,  iv  15. 

'^  Among  the  Ostrogoths  during  their  war  with  the  Romans  (from  535  onwards) 
we  meet  with  several  kings  of  non-royal  birth ;  but  the  conditions  were  altogether 
abnormal.  One  king  (Eraric)  was  a  Rugian  and  appointed  apparently  by  his  own 
followers. 

'  E.g.  Athalaric  the  grandson  of  Theodric  and  Walthari  the  son  of  Waccho,  king 
of  the  Langobardi.  Aethelberht,  king  of  Kent,  must  have  succeeded  as  a  child. 
Heardred,  the  son  of  Hygelac,  is  represented  as  very  young. 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  369 

in  the  North  also,  especially  in  Sweden,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  these  had  long  been  in  existence.  They  were  used 
by  the  kings  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  proclamations,  and 
at  the  same  time  they  presented  an  opportunity  for  coercing  or 
overthrowing  a  king  who  had  aroused  popular  resentment  in 
any  way.  But  they  appear  to  have  been  primarily  religious 
gatherings,  for  the  great  annual  sacrifices  at  the  chief  national 
sanctuary.  It  is  more  than  probable  however  that  such  was  the 
case  also  with  the  assemblies  of  the  ancient  Germans^  At  all 
events  there  is  nothing  to  show  that,  apart  from  special  emer- 
gencies, they  met  more  than  once,  or  possibly  twice,  in  the  year. 
In  England  evidence  seems  to  be  altogether  wanting  for  any 
assemblies  which  could  properly  be  called  national ;  nor  do  we 
find  any  reference  to  such  an  institution  in  the  poems. 

It  is  true  that  we  hear  not  unfiequently  of  discussions  and 
deliberations  in  works  dating  from  the  Heroic  Age.  But 
although  precise  information  as  to  the  size  and  constitution  of 
these  meetings  is  seldom  given,  they  appear  to  be  those  of 
comparatively  small  bodies,  similar  to  the  royal  councils  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms.  The  latter  however  were  nothing  more 
than  meetings  of  the  court  from  the  earliest  times  to  which  our 
records  go  back.  When  important  questions  were  discussed 
care  may  have  been  taken  to  summon  all  the  leading  men  ;  and 
no  doubt  age  and  high  rank  ensured  priority  of  hearing,  as  in 
the  assemblies  of  Tacitus'  day.  But  still  they  remained  essentially 
meetings  of  the  king's  personal  dependents.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  gatherings  like  that 
described  by  Procopius  (  Vand.  I  22),  when  Genseric  received  the 
embassy  from  his  compatriots  in  Europe,  differed  in  any  way 
from  the  meeting  called  by  Edwin  in  625  to  discuss  the  adoption 
of  Christianity.  Often  indeed  the  persons  present  are  described 
as  OL  XoyifjLot  or  XoyificoraToi.  Again,  in  Beowulf  we  hear  more 
than  once  of  Danish  councillors  {witan  Scyldijiga),  but  there 
is  nothing  to  show  that  these  were  a  different  body  from  the 
members  of  the  court  who  entertained  Beowulf;  and  it  is  clear 
from  vv.  778  ff.,  936  ff.  that  their  meetings  were  held  in  the  same 
building.     The  old  and  distinguished  councillor  who  persuaded 

^  Cf.  especially  Tacitus,  Germ.  39;  Ann,  I  51. 

24 


370  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Genseric  to  reject  the  petition  of  the  envoys  would  seem  to  have 
been  just  such  another  person  as  Aeschere,  Hrothgar's  trusted 
adviser  (cf.  p.  350).  In  the  story  of  Hermegisklos  and  Radiger 
also  (cf  p.  97  f.)  it  is  clear  that  the  same  '  distinguished  men  of 
the  nation '  (ol  \6<yt/jioi,  XoyLfKOTaroi)  act  both  as  companions  of 
the  old  king  and  advisers  of  his  young  successor. 

In  spite  of  what  has  been  said  above  there  is  some  evidence 
for  the  existence  of  councils  consisting  of  a  fixed  number  of  men, 
namely  twelve,  whose  position  may  have  differed  somewhat 
from  that  of  the  ordinary  members  of  the  courts  The  Old 
Saxons  had  a  council  of  twelve  which  met  annually  at  a  place 
called  Marklo,  on  the  Weser  ;  but  this  case  stands  by  itself,  as 
the  Old  Saxons  had  no  king.  In  Sweden  however  we  meet  with 
such  councils  both  in  tradition  and  in  historical  times,  and  what 
we  know  of  them  indicates  that  they  were  composed  of  the  chief 
men.  Moreover  councils  of  twelve  for  judicial  purposes  occur 
both  in  provinces  and  small  districts  in  various  parts  of  the 
Scandinavian  peninsula,  as  well  as  in  the  Scandinavian  settle- 
ments in  the  British  Isles.  The  gods  too  were  credited  with  pos- 
sessing a  council  of  twelve  which  had  both  judicial  and  sacrificial 
duties^ — a  fact  which  is  interesting  as  it  points  to  a  connection 
between  the  councils  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  and  bodies 
of  twelve  with  sacrificial  duties,  of  which  we  hear  in  stories 
relating  to  heathen  times.  If  we  take  into  account  the  legend 
of  the  twelve  Frisian  judges  {asegen)  and  the  fact  that  councils 
of  twelve  are  known  to  have  existed  among  the  Celts  and  other 
European  peoples,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  this  type  is  of 
great  antiquity.  Yet  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  such  councils 
were  at  all  general  during  the  Heroic  Age ;  in  England  they 
seem  to  be  entirely  unknown  before  the  period  of  Scandinavian 
influence.  It  is  probable  therefore  that  in  this,  as  in  other 
respects,  the  Swedes  had  preserved  an  institution  which  other 
kingdoms  had  discarded. 

From  the  stories  quoted  above  we  see  that  it  was  customary 
for  the  king  to  consult  his  council  or  court  when  any  question 
involving  difficulty  or  danger  arose  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 

^  For  references  see  Folk-Lore,  xi,  pp.  280,  282  f.,  300. 
^  Cf.  especially  Gylf.  14,  Yngl.  S.  2,  Gautreks  S.  7. 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  371 

that  he  would  feel  his  position  strengthened  by  so  doing.  But 
we  have  no  reason  for  supposing  that  the  opinion  of  the  council 
possessed  anything  more  than  moral  force ;  and  consequently 
it  would  depend  upon  the  king's  strength  of  character  or  the 
security  of  his  position  whether  he  felt  himself  bound  to  follow 
their  advice  or  not.  Procopius  {Goth.  I  2)  states  that  Amala- 
swintha  was  coerced  by  the  leading  men  of  the  Goths  with  regard 
to  her  son's  education  ;  but  she  was  only  a  regent  at  this  time. 
Again,  in  another  passage  {ib.  iv  27)  he  relates  how  Hildigisl, 
a  claimant  to  the  Langobardic  throne,  fled  for  refuge  to  Thorisin 
(Turisindus),  king  of  the  Gepidae.  Audoin,  king  of  the  Lango- 
bardi,  demanded  that  he  should  be  given  up  ;  and  his  request 
was  supported  by  Justinian.  Thorisin  consulted  his  distinguished 
men  {01  Xo'yLfxoi),  but  they  replied  that  it  would  be  better  for  the 
whole  nation  of  the  Gepidae  to  perish  than  to  commit  such  an 
act  of  sacrilege.  The  king  now,  says  Procopius,  felt  himself  to 
be  in  a  great  difficulty.  For  he  could  not  carry  out  what  was 
demanded  against  the  will  of  his  subjects,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  was  afraid  to  go  to  war  against  the  Romans  and  Langobardi. 
So  he  contrived  to  get  the  fugitive  murdered  secretly,  obtaining 
a  quid  pro  quo  in  the  murder  of  one  of  his  own  rivals.  It  must 
be  observed  that  Thorisin  himself  had  obtained  the  throne  by 
violence.  So  the  young  Radiger,  when  he  was  captured  and 
brought  before  the  English  princess,  pleaded  that  he  had  been 
forced  to  renounce  his  promise  to  her  by  his  father's  commands 
and  the  insistence  of  the  leading  men  {rr)v  rwv  dp-^6vT(ov  o-ttovSiJv). 
Genseric  on  the  other  hand  dismissed  the  envoys  in  accordance 
with  the  old  councillor's  advice  ;  but  we  are  told  that  both  of 
them  were  ridiculed  by  the  rest  of  the  Vandals  for  so  doing. 
Plainly  then  there  was  no  question  of  having  to  follow  the 
opinion  of  the  majority. 

It  might  naturally  be  expected  that  the  authority  of  the 
council  would  make  itself  felt  most  on  the  occasion  of  the  king's 
death  ;  and  the  story  of  Radiger  seems  to  bear  this  out.  Yet 
it  is  worth  noticing  what  is  recorded  in  Beowulf  on  an  occasion 
of  great  emergency.  Hygelac,  king  of  the  Geatas,  lost  his  life 
in  the  disastrous  expedition  against  the  Frisians  and  left  an  only 
son,  Heardred,  who  seems  to  have  been  scarcely  more  than  a 


372  GOVERNMENT   IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

child.  Beowulf  escaped  from  the  slaughter,  and  on  his  return 
(v.  2369  ff.)  "  Hygd  offered  him  the  treasury  and  the  government, 
the  rings  and  the  throne.  She  trusted  not  that  her  child  would 
be  able  to  hold  his  patrimony  against  foreign  nations,  now  that 
Hygelac  was  dead."  There  is  no  reference  to  any  action  on 
the  part  of  the  council  or  court  ;  but  the  queen  offers  the  throne 
to  the  late  king's  nephew.  The  whole  passage  seems  to  indicate 
that  the  throne  with  all  its  rights  was  regarded  very  much  like 
any  ordinary  family  property.  Its  disposition  is  arranged  by 
the  family  itself,  without  any  notion  of  responsibility  to  others  ; 
and  the  members  of  the  court  are  not  taken  into  account  any 
more  than  the  servants  in  a  private  household. 

It  may  perhaps  be  argued  that  court  poets  would  be  apt  to 
exaggerate  the  power  of  the  royal  family  and  consequently 
that  the  picture  of  its  authority  given  here  is  misleading.  Yet 
Amalaswintha,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Hygelac,  appears  to 
have  acted  on  her  own  authority  when  she  associated  Theodahath, 
the  nephew  of  Theodric,  in  the  sovereignty  with  herself  after  her 
son's  death.  There  is  other  evidence  also  which  goes  to  show 
that  this  passage  truly  reflects  the  spirit  of  the  times.  In  the 
story  of  Radiger  we  see  how  a  young  princess  was  able  to  gather 
together  a  huge  army  and  bring  about  a  sanguinary  struggle 
between  two  nations  on  account  of  an  insult  offered  to  her  by 
a  neighbouring  king.  Again,  Paulus  Diaconus  {Hist.  Lang.  I  20) 
states  that  the  war  between  the  Heruli  and  the  Langobardi  was 
due  to  the  murder  of  the  Herulian  king's  brother  by  a  Lango- 
bardic  princess.  Even  if  this  story  is  untrue,  it  is  significant 
enough  that  it  should  obtain  credit.  To  the  prominent  part 
played  by  women  in  determining  the  destinies  of  nations  we 
have  already  alluded  (p.  337  f.).  In  particular  we  may  call 
attention  to  the  position  of  Fredegond  and  Brunhild,  who  after 
the  deaths  of  their  husbands  practically  ruled  the  kingdom  of 
the  Franks.  In  the  seventh  century  Hygd's  action  in  disposing 
of  the  kingdom  is  easily  outdone  by  Sexburg,  the  widow  of  the 
West  Saxon  king  Coenwalh,  who  is  said  to  have  kept  the  throne 
for  herself. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  course  that  the  ease  with  which  kings 
and  princes  were  able  to  draw  their  nations  into  war  was  due 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  373 

largely  to  the  restless  spirit  which  animated  their  retinues. 
Sometimes  indeed  they  appear  to  have  been  drawn  into  war 
against  their  own  inclination.  Procopius  {Goth.  II  14)  differs 
from  Paulus  Diaconus  in  the  cause  which  he  assigns  for  the  out- 
break of  the  war  between  the  Heruli  and  Langobardi.  According 
to  him  it  was  due  entirely  to  the  fact  that  the  Heruli  could  not 
endure  a  peace  of  more  than  three  years  duration,  and  conse- 
quently forced  their  king  into  hostilities.  The  Frankish  king 
Lothair  I  is  said  by  Gregory  (iv  14)  to  have  been  driven  into 
a  disastrous  campaign  against  the  Saxons  from  the  same  cause. 
In  this  direction  then  we  may  certainly  recognise  the  influence 
of  the  court ;  but  the  pressure  probably  came  not  from  the  old 
councillors,  but  from  the  younger  men  who  hoped  to  gain  riches 
and  glory  thereby. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  international  relations. 
What  is  said  in  the  opening  verses  of  Beowulf  regarding  Scyld 
Scefing,  the  eponymous  ancestor  of  the  Danish  royal  family, 
may  probably  be  taken  as  a  standard  description  of  a  typical 
successful  king  of  the  Heroic  Age  :  "  He  deprived  many  dynasties 
of  their  banqueting  halls... and  gained  glory  after  glory,  until 
every  one  of  his  neighbours  across  the  whale's  road  had  to  obey 
him  and  pay  him  tribute."  With  increasing  wealth  however  the 
love  of  peace  frequently  reasserted  itself,  especially  perhaps 
towards  the  end  of  the  period,  by  which  time  the  kingdoms 
had  materially  decreased  in  number  and  consequent!}^  increased 
in  size.  We  now  see  alliances  more  and  more  taking  the  place 
of  conquest.  Theodric  organised  an  alliance  not  only  with  the 
Visigoths  but  also  with  the  kings  of  the  Thuringians,  Heruli  and 
Warni,  which  extended  his  influence  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  North  Sea ;  and  his  name  seems  to  have  carried  weight  as 
far  as  the  eastern  part  of  the  Baltic.  In  Beowulf  too  we  see 
the  nations  of  the  Baltic  dealing  with  one  another  for  the  most 
part  on  friendly  terms. 

That  such  alliances  were  primarily  of  a  personal  rather  than 
a  national  character  is  shown  in  two  ways.  In  the  first  place 
they  were  often  cemented  by  marriage.  Thus  two  of  Theodric's 
daughters  were  married  to  Alaric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  and 
Sigismund,  king  of  the  Burgundians,  respectively,  his  sister  to 


374  GOVERNMENT    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Thrasamund,  king  of  the  Vandals,  and  his  niece  to  Irminfrith, 
king  of  the  Thuringians,  while  Theodric  himself  married  a  sister 
of  Clovis.  We  have  seen  (p.  98)  that  similar  marriages  were 
contracted  by  the  kings  of  the  Warni,  while  the  Prankish  royal 
family  was  intermarried  with  those  of  practically  all  the  sur- 
rounding nations.  In  the  North  the  same  custom  seems  to  have 
prevailed,  for  in  Beowulf  one  of  the  Swedish  kings,  probably  Onela, 
is  married  to  a  sister  of  the  Danish  king  Hrothgar.  The  term 
fri'^uwebbe  (usually  interpreted  as  '  weaver  of  peace '),  which  we 
find  applied  to  ladies  of  royal  rank  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  probably 
owes  its  origin  to  this  bond  of  union  between  kingly  families. 
Such  marriages  seem  to  have  sometimes  taken  place  after  a  war, 
as  in  the  case  of  Ingeld  and  Freawaru  in  Beowulf. 

Secondly,  we  hear  of  kings  entering  into  a  relationship  called 
'  fatherhood  '  and  '  sonship '  with  other  kings.  For  an  example 
we  may  cite  one  of  Cassiodorus'  letters  ( Var.  iv  2),  addressed 
to  a  king  of  the  Heruli  and  informing  him  that  Theodric  creates 
him  his  '  son  in  arms '  {Jilius  per  arma),  which  is  a  great  honour^ 
The  letter  is  accompanied  by  a  valuable  present  of  arms  and 
horses.  Parallels  are  to  be  found  in  much  later  times.  We  may 
refer  to  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  ann.  924,  where  the  Scottish  king 
(Constantine  II)  and  several  other  princes  in  northern  Britain 
accept  Edward  the  Elder  as  '  father  and  lord.'  It  is  scarcely 
to  be  doubted  that  in  such  cases  the  '  son '  is  expected  to  render 
assistance  to  the  '  father '  when  required.  The  king  of  the  Heruli 
appears  to  have  been  in  alliance  with  Theodric'^,  while  Malcolm  I, 
the  successor  of  Constantine  II,  was  under  an  engagement  with 
Edmund  to  be  his  "  cooperator  both  by  sea  and  by  land^"  The 
Unperium  which  Bede  (//.  ^.11  5)  ascribes  to  several  English 
kings  in  all  probability  involved  somewhat  similar  obligations ; 
and  it  rested  without  doubt  upon  an  acceptance  of  lordship,  if 
not  of  fatherhood. 

1  In  Beow.  946  ff.  (cf.  1175  f. )  Hrothgar  pays  a  similar  compliment  to  the  hero, 
who  is  not  a  king  at  this  time.  Probably  the  intention  is  to  do  Beowulf  a  quite 
exceptional  honour. 

"^  Cf.  Cassiodorus,  Var.  Ill  3. 

^  Cf.  Chron.,  ann.  945.  For  the  form  of  agreement  entered  into  upon  such 
occasions  reference  may  be  made  to  ann.  874,  921  (ad  fin.)  etc.  The  terms  probably 
varied  from  case  to  case. 


I 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  375 

After  the  establishment  of  overlordship  the  next  stage  is 
•that  in  which  the  smaller  kingdoms  are  annexed  and  incor- 
porated by  the  larger  ones — generally  in  consequence  of  a  revolt. 
The  place  of  the  native  king  or  kings  is  often  taken  at  first  by 
a  member  of  the  victorious  dynasty ;  but  such  arrangements 
were  seldom  lasting,  and  before  long  the  national  organisation 
was  abolished.  The  completion  of  this  process  on  the  Continent 
belongs  of  course  to  times  subsequent  to  the  Heroic  Age,  while 
in  this  country  it  took  place  still  later.  But  we  can  see  such 
changes  going  on  within  the  Heroic  Age  itself.  At  the  end  of 
the  period  the  number  of  Teutonic  kingdoms  on  the  Continent 
was  quite  small.  Several  however,  such  as  those  of  the  Alamanni, 
the  Burgundians  and  the  Thuringians,  had  disappeared  within 
the  last  half  century ;  in  the  fourth  century  they  were  probably 
far  more  numerous.  Many  of  them  may  have  been  quite  in- 
significant, like  the  petty  kingdoms  which  are  said  to  have 
existed  in  Norway — eight  apparently  in  the  district  of  Trondhjem 
alone — down  to  the  time  of  Harold  the  Fair-haired.  Several  of 
the  nations  which  figure  prominently  in  Tacitus'  works  had 
perhaps  disappeared  still  earlier.  At  all  events  they  are  never 
mentioned  either  in  historical  works  or  traditions  referring  to 
the  Heroic  Age. 

The  reverse  process  cannot  be  traced  so  clearly.  The 
division  of  a  kingdom  between  brothers  or  other  relatives  does 
not  seem  as  a  rule  to  have  led  to  a  permanent  partition.  Very 
often  indeed  it  was  apparently  no  more  than  a  temporary  dis- 
tribution of  estates  and  spheres  of  jurisdiction,  not  necessarily 
in  solid  blocks^  In  such  cases  the  kingdom  was  still  regarded 
as  one  property,  of  which  the  kings  were  joint  possessors.  But 
there  can  be  no  question  that  many  kingdoms  established  on 
alien  soil,  e.g.  in  Britain,  were  offshoots  from  other  kingdoms. 

This  consideration  brings  us  to  the  much  debated  question 
of  the  relationship  between  kingdom  and  nation.  It  has  been 
assumed  by  many  scholars  that  among  the  Teutonic  peoples 
the  kingdom  was  a  comparatively  late  outgrowth  from  the 
nation  or  tribe.     It  reality  this  problem  seems  to  me  to  have 

^  For  the  case  of  the  Prankish  kingdom  see  Waitz,  Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte^, 
II,  p.   145  ff. ;  Brunner,  Deutsche  Rechtsgeschichte,  il,  p.  25  f. 


376  GOVERNMENT    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

much  in  common  with  that  of  the  hen  and  the  egg.  With  the 
earhest  kingdoms  of  all  we  are  not  concerned  here  ;  it  will  be 
enough  to  mention  that  our  earliest  historical  notices  testify  to 
the  prevalence  of  kingship,  though  not  always  to  monarchy  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  term.  In  the  Heroic  Age  however  we 
certainly  find  kingdoms  springing  up  where  no  nation  or  tribe, 
properly  speaking,  can  be  said  to  have  existed  previously.  We 
may  cite  the  case  of  Odoacer,  who  in  476  made  himself  king  in 
Italy  with  the  help  of  his  troops.  In  principle  we  may  regard 
him  as  the  princeps  of  a  comitatus.  Then  we  have  to  consider 
the  various  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms.  The  Mercian  royal  family 
traced  their  descent  from  Offa,  the  ancient  king  of  Angel,  while 
the  West  Saxon  dynasty  claimed  to  be  sprung  from  that  Wig, 
the  son  of  Freawine,  who  was  earl  of  Slesvig  under  Offa's  father, 
according  to  the  story  preserved  by  Saxo.  But  to  the  origin  of 
the  rest  the  genealogies  give  us  no  clue.  If  they  were  all  of  royal 
origin — and  apparently  they  did  claim  divine  descent — the  Angli 
must  have  possessed  a  numerous  royal  class  ;  and  we  are  scarcely 
justified  in  denying  that  this  may  have  been  the  case\  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  some  of  them  were 
sprung  from  foreign  peoples,  such  as  the  Danes,  Swedes  or 
Warni.  But  what  we  may  regard  as  practically  certain  is  that 
the  individual  kingdoms  did  not  rest  upon  a  national  or  tribal 
foundation.  There  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  supposing 
that  (e.g.)  the  East  Anglians  as  a  people  belonged  to  a  different 
nation  or  tribe  from  the  Northumbrians.  It  is  scarcely  credible 
that  the  first  kings  were  anything  else  than  principes  in  command 
of  comitatus,  whether  they  set  out  from  the  homeland  in  this 
position  or  established  themselves  at  a  later  date  by  severing 
their  allegiance  from  other  kings  in   Britain  itself. 

Nor  is  there  any  reason  for  supposing  that  this  phenomenon 
was  peculiar  to  Britain.  The  story  of  Waldhere  tells  of  the 
presence  of  small  Teutonic  communities  in  eastern  Gaul,  each 

^  In  the  account  of  Wulfstan's  voyage  given  in  King  Alfred's  translation  of 
Orosius  (p.  20  in  Sweet's  edition)  it  is  stated  that  the  land  of  the  Este  (in  East 
Prussia)  contains  very  many  fortified  places  {burh,  i.e.  probably  stockaded  villages) 
and  that  in  each  of  these  there  is  a  king.  But  it  is  scarcely  probable  that  such  primitive 
conditions  survived  among  the  Angli  even  four  or  five  centuries  before  Alfred's  time 
(cf.  p.  380,  note). 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  3/7 

under  a  royal  family  of  its  own.  And  not  only  heroic  stories 
but  also  historical  works  relating  to  the  earlier  part  of  the  Heroic 
Age  frequently  refer  to  comparatively  small  bands  of  warriors — 
such  as  that  led  by  the  Goth  Sarus  in  Stilicho's  time — in  various 
parts  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  even  beyond  its  borders^  Such 
bands  may  very  well  have  produced  communities  like  the  one 
ruled  by  Waldhere's  father^ ;  but  it  would  be  absurd  to  speak 
of  them  as  nations  or  tribes.  They  have  clearly  far  more  in 
common  with  the  military  kingship  established  by  Odoacer.  The 
peculiarity  of  his  position  indeed  lies  only  in  the  magnitude  of 
the  power  to  which  he  attained. 

In  brief  we  have  to  distinguish  between  two  classes  of 
kingdoms  in  the  Heroic  Age.  In  the  new  kingdoms,  settled 
on  foreign  soil,  we  find  an  essentially  military  kingship,  an 
imperium  vested  in  a  particular  family.  These  kings  either 
established  themselves  in  Roman  cities,  such  as  Ravenna, 
Langres  or  York,  or  moved  about  from  one  royal  estate  to 
another.  Of  national  assemblies  we  have  frequently  no  trace 
at  all,  while  the  council  is  identical  with  the  comitatiis  and 
consists  of  relatives  and  nominees  of  the  king.  Such  kingdoms 
often  rest  on  no  national  or  tribal  foundations  ;  the  king  and  his 
comitatus  form  the  nucleus  of  the  organism.  On  the  other  hand 
the  older  kingdoms,  especially  in  the  North,  retained  many 
features  of  a  more  primitive  constitution.  The  king's  position 
had  a  religious  significance,  and  his  capital,  e.g.  at  Leire  or 
Gamla  Upsala,  was  the  chief  national  sanctuary,  at  which 
assemblies,  primarily  religious  but  possessing  considerable 
political  influence,  took  place  from  time  to  time.  It  is  likely 
too  that  the  councils  here  were  originally  permanent  bodies 
with  more  or  less  fixed  prerogatives — essentially  religious,  but 

^  It  is  only  in  this  way  that  we  can  account  for  the  more  or  less  simultaneous 
appearance  of  Heruli  in  Gaul  and  on  the  Black  Sea  in  the  latter  part  of  the  third 
century.  In  the  fifth  century  this  nation  had  a  powerful  kingdom  in  Central  Europe. 
We  may  refer  also  to  the  traces  of  various  peoples  (Angli,  Warni,  etc.)  which  we  find 
in  the  basin  of  the  Saale,  as  well  as  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Suabi  in  Spain,  the  Goths 
in  the  Crimea,  etc.  Abundant  parallels  are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  Viking 
Age. 

2  It  is  quite  possible  that  many  of  the  leading  characters  in  the  heroic  stories  may 
belong  to  such  communities,  e.g.  Hnaef,  Sigmundr  and  Sigur'Sr,  He'Sinn,  Ham'Sir 
and  Sorli,  Haki  and  Hagbar^r. 


378  GOVERNMENT    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

yet  by  no  means  without  political  power.  Between  these  two 
types  of  kingdoms  we  find  others  of  an  intermediate  character^ 
especially  in  nations  which  had  migrated  en  masse ;  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  during  the  Heroic  Age  even  the  most 
conservative  of  the  older  kingdoms  were  influenced  by  the  newer 
type.  It  is  the  newer  type  of  course  which  we  must  regard  as 
truly  characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age. 

In  post-heroic  times  again  we  find  a  reversion  to  the  national 
idea  of  a  kingdom,  though  on  a  much  larger  scale.  In  English 
history  this  tendency  can  be  traced  from  the  seventh  century 
onwards.  In  Bede's  works  it  is  clear  that  such  an  expression 
as  Merciorum  gens  {Myrcna  maeg}))  had  come  to  mean  something 
more  than  the  royal  family  of  the  Mercians  with  their  property 
and  dependents.  By  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  however  this 
feeling  is  much  more  clearly  perceptible.  We  may  cite  King 
Alfred's  will,  where  it  is  clearly  recognised  that  the  kingdom 
should  not  be  divided  up  as  a  family  property.  But  it  is  not 
until  the  time  of  Aethelred  II  that  the  full  sense  of  the  king's 
responsibility  to  the  nation  finds  expression  in  definite  terms. 

The  form  of  government  which  we  find  depicted  in  the 
Homeric  poems  seems  to  be  not  unlike  that  which  we  have 
discussed  above.  Here  too  kingship  is  universal — apparently 
also  without  any  recognised  constitutional  limitations  to  the 
royal  authority.  The  murder  or  expulsion  of  a  prince  is  not 
unknown ;  but  such  cases  are  due  to  strife  within  the  royal 
family.  Any  differences  which  we  can  detect  between  the 
authority  of  Homeric  kings  and  that  wielded  by  early  Teutonic 
rulers  may  be  ascribed  partly  to  the  much  smaller  size  of  the 
kingdoms  and  partly  to  a  social  feature  noted  in  the  last  chapter 
(p.  363  f),  namely  that  in  many  Greek  communities  kingly  or 
princely  rank  seems  to  have  been  claimed  by  a  number  of 
different  families. 

The  last  consideration  is  especially  prominent  in  the  Odyssey^ 
The  throne  of  Ithaca  has  been  in  the  possession  of  one  family 

^  In  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  the  view  has  been  put  forward  (cf.  Finsler, 
N'.  Jahrb.  xin  319  ff.,  396  ff. ;  summarised  410  ff.)  that  the  form  of  government 
depicted  in  the  Odyssey  is  really  an  aristocracy,  whereas  the  evidence  of  the  Iliad  is 
inconsistent  owing  to  traditional  reminiscences  of  a  time  of  real  kingship.     Thus  in 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  379 

for  three  generations.  Yet  in  I  394  fif.  Telemachos  says  that 
there  are  many  kings  of  the  Achaeans,  both  young  and  old, 
in  the  island,  and  he  expects  that  one  of  them  will  take  the 
sovreignty,  now  that  Odysseus  is  dead.  In  Scheria  also  we 
hear  of  twelve  sceptre-bearing  kings  under  Alcinoos  ;  but  to 
this  case  we  shall  have  to  return  shortly.  That  a  king  was  not 
necessarily  a  person  of  great  magnificence  may  be  inferred  also 
from  one  of  the  scenes  depicted  on  Achilles'  shield  (II.  XVIII 
556  ff.),  where  we  find  a  king  in  the  harvest-field  watching  the 
work  of  the  reapers  and  feasting  on  the  spot.  We  are  reminded 
here  of  the  story  of  the  Norwegian  king  SigurSr  Syr  who  was 
summoned  from  the  harvest-field  to  greet  his  step-son,  St  Olaf, 
and  whose  state-robes  had  to  be  sent  to  him  there  in  order  to 
enable  him  to  make  a  suitable  appearance^ 

In  this  connection  it  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  according 
to  the  Catalogue  of  Ships  the  contingents  supplied  by  several 
communities  were  under  a  number  of  different  princes.  Thus 
the  Epeioi  have  four  leaders  and  the  Boeotians  five,  without 
counting  those  from  Orchomenos  and  Aspledon.  The  troops 
from  Argolis  (exclusive  of  Agamemnon's  dominions)  are  led  by 
three  princes,  all  of  whom  according  to  later  authorities  were 
related — two  of  them,  Diomedes  and  Sthenelos,  being  sons  of 

the  latter  poem  /SacrtXei/s  (in  the  singular)  is  generally  used  only  of  Agamemnon, 
though  there  are  exceptions,  e.g.  I  331,  where  it  is  applied  to  "  Achilleus,  dem  der 
Titel,  streng  genommen,  nicht  zukommt,  da  Peleus  noch  lebt"  (p.  404  f.).  I  do  not 
think  that  this  explanation  is  likely  to  carry  conviction  to  anyone  who  has  studied 
early  Teutonic  history.  It  is  clear  that  in  early  times  throughout  the  Teutonic  area 
— in  England  down  to  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  and  in  the  North  much  later — 
the  title  of  king  was  applied  to  sons  and  other  relatives  of  kings,  as  well  as  to  dependent 
princes.  The  only  qualifications  for  the  title  were  (i)  royal  birth,  (ii)  the  possession 
of  some  kind  of  authority  or  'lordship'  (ri/ii^).  How  small  this  authority  might  be 
can  be  seen  from  St  Olafs  Saga  (Heimskr. ),  cap.  4,  where  we  are  told  that  Olaf  had 
the  title  of  king  given  to  him  by  his  followers  ;  "for  it  was  customary  that  herkonungar 
(i.e.  Viking  chiefs)  who  were  engaged  in  piracy  should  take  the  title  of  king  at  once, 
if  they  were  of  royal  birth,  although  they  governed  no  territories."  The  qualification 
of  royal  birth  however  was  essential.  The  title  was  not  taken  even  by  so  great  a  man 
as  Earl  Haakon  of  Lade,  who  had  kings  practically  dependent  on  him.  I  see  no 
reason  for  regarding  the  conditions  depicted  in  either  of  the  Homeric  poems  as 
different  from  what  we  find  in  the  North,  although,  owing  presumably  to  the  small- 
ness  of  the  kingdoms,  all  the  important  characters  appear  to  be  persons  of  royal  birth. 
^  St  Olafs  Saga  (Heimskr.),  cap.  30  fif. 


380  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Adrastos'  daughters,  while  the  third,  Euryalos,  was  his  brother's 
son^  Diomedes  is  said  to  be  the  commander-in-chief,  but  as 
Sthenelos  is  his  charioteer  the  relations  between  them  are 
evidently  of  an  intimate  character.  It  is  not  stated  whether 
all  these  princes  were  actually  reigning  kings,  or  merely  leaders 
selected  for  the  expedition ;  but  Diomedes  and  Sthenelos  at 
least  have  no  fathers  living. 

There  is  no  evidence,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  for  any  form  of 
election  for  kings.  In  the  case  of  Bellerophon  we  are  told  that 
"the  Lycians  apportioned  him  a  demesne"  (reVei'o?  TOfiov);  but 
it  was  the  king  who  granted  him  half  the  royal  rights.  And 
similarly  in  all  other  cases  the  kingly  power  seems  to  have  been 
obtained  from  some  relative  by  blood  or  marriage.  This  renders 
it  more  easily  intelligible  that  the  plural  kingship — if  such  it 
was — of  which  we  have  spoken  above,  may  be  due  ultimately 
to  family  arrangements.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  suppose 
that  in  such  cases  the  kingdom  was  always  divided  into  geo- 
graphical halves  and  quarters.  As  to  the  relationship  between 
the  various  kings  under  such  an  arrangement — e.g.  whether  the 
phrase  crvfi-rravroiv  tjyeiTo  applied  to  Diomedes  in  II.  II  567 
means  a  formal  recognition  of  lordship  on  the  part  of  his 
colleagues — we  have  apparently  no  precise  information. 

The  religious  aspect  of  kingship  is  not  very  prominent  in 
the  Homeric  poems.  When  the  armies  are  gathered  together 
to  perform  a  sacrifice  Agamemnon  acts  as  priest  (II.  Ill  271  ff.) 
with  the  cooperation  of  Priam,  and  Nestor  seems  to  take  the 
chief  part  in  sacrifices  at  Pylos  (Od.  Ill  444  ff.).  There  is  no 
reason  for  supposing  that  such  cases  are  exceptional ;  as  in  the 
North  (cf.  p.  367)  the  king  or  chief  person  seems  likewise  to  have 
acted  as  priest.  We  do  occasionally  hear  of  priests  of  sanctuaries, 
such  as  Chryseus  at  the  opening  of  the  Iliad  ;  but  no  mention  is 
made  of  state-priests  or  tribal  priests.     In  historical  times  the 

^  This  passage  offers  at  least  a  partial  explanation  of  the  phenomenon  which  we 
have  been  discussing.  If  royal  rank  is  traced  both  on  the  male  and  female  sides  the 
kingly  class  will  inevitably  be  numerous.  Such  may  have  been  the  case  among  the 
Angli  also  at  one  time.  But  it  is  not  unlikely  that  at  least  in  the  remoter  parts  of 
Greece  each  '  city '  or  small  district  may  have  retained  a  royal  family  of  its  own,  like 
the  communities  visited  by  Wulfstan  (cf.  p.  376,  note).  We  may  refer  to  such  a 
passage  as  II.  IX  395  f.,  if  apiffT-Zjuv  here  means  dependent  princes. 


I 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  38 1 

case  was  otherwise.  Thus  Athens  possessed  a  state-priest  known 
as  I3acri\ev<i.  The  name  of  the  office  itself  shows  that  it  was  a 
relic  of  the  kingship  which  had  been  gradually  stripped  of  all 
except  its  religious  duties.  Political  power  here  was  transferred 
at  first  to  an  official  called  o  ap%<wi^,  whose  origin  may  have  been 
similar  to  that  of  the  Prankish  niaior  doimis.  We  may  note  also 
that  at  Sparta,  where  the  institution  of  kingship  was  preserved 
in  a  modified  form,  priestly  functions  were  among  the  chief 
duties  preserved  by  the  kings. 

The  poems  themselves  do  not  make  it  clear  that  the  religious 
aspect  of  kingship  amounts  to  more  than  priestly  position,  for 
such  phrases  as  ^eo<?  gj?  tUto  ^rjixw  are  scarcely  free  from  am- 
biguity. But  later  authorities  give  us  much  more  information 
in  this  respect.  In  the  first  place  we  may  notice  certain  legends, 
such  as  that  of  the  impious  king  Salmoneus,  who  aspired  to 
the  functions  of  Zeus — a  story  which  is  now  thought  by  many 
scholars  to  have  arisen  from  a  misunderstanding.  More  than 
one  of  the  early  Attic  kings  also  seem  to  have  been  regarded  as 
at  least  partly  divined  But  above  all  we  have  to  take  into 
account  the  statement  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  {Protr.  II  38) 
that  the  Spartans  worshipped  a  certain  Zeu?  ^ A<yaiJieixvwv,  which 
has  led  some  writers  to  assume  that  Agamemnon  was  originally 
a  god.  In  all  probability  the  true  explanation  is  furnished  by 
Tzetzes^,  who  says  that  in  early  times  kings  regularly  bore  the 
name  Zeu9.  We  have  an  interesting  parallel  here  to  the  usage 
of  the  ancient  Swedes^  whose  kings  are  said  to  have  been  called 
Yngvi  (cf  p.  367).  In  both  cases  we  may  probably  infer  that 
the  king  was  regarded  in  some  sense  as  the  god's  representative  ; 

^  Cf.  especially  Cook,  Folk-Lore,  xv  385  f. 

2  Chil.  I  474  (roiis  ^aaiKeh  5'  av^Kade  Alas  eKaXow  wdvTas)  and  elsewhere.  On 
this  subject  see  Cook,  Class.  Rev.  xvii  409,  and  Folk-Lore,  xv  303  f.  (cf.  301),  where 
full  references  are  given. 

*  The  parallel  must  not  be  pressed  too  far  of  course.  According  to  Tzetzes  all 
kings  were  called  Zews.  But  apparently  not  all  kings  were  descended  from  Zeus ; 
Nestor,  for  example,  was  sprung  from  Poseidon  according  to  Od.  XI  254  ff.  We 
may  refer  however  to  Hesiod,  Theog.  96,  where  kings  are  said  to  derive  their  authority 
from  Zeus,  and  to  the  Homeric  epithet  5ioTpe<p7]i  (possibly  also  dioyev/is)  which  is 
commonly  applied  to  kings.  Frey  on  the  other  hand  was  an  ancestral  god  but  not 
the  chief  of  the  gods,  though  he  is  sometimes  in  poetry  called  folkvaldi  go^a,  which 
Saxo  translates  by  satrapa  deorum. 


382  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

possibly  he  personated  him  on  certain  occasions.  Yet  it  must 
be  remembered  that  this  aspect  of  kingship  is  not  brought 
forward  in  the  poems\  If  our  sketch  of  the  history  of  Homeric 
poetry  is  correct  in  its  main  outlines,  we  must  conclude  that  the 
divinity  of  kings  was  not  a  doctrine  to  which  supreme  importance 
was  attached  in  the  courts  themselves. 

National  or  tribal  assemblies  are  not  often  mentioned.  In 
Od.  VIII  26  ff.  Alcinoos  addresses  the  Phaeacians  in  their 
assembly  {djopr])  and  declares  to  them  his  resolve  to  assist 
Odysseus.  Again,  in  II  6  ff.  Telemachos  calls  an  assembly 
in  Ithaca.  But  on  this  occasion  the  first  speaker,  Aigyptios, 
says  that  the  assembly  has  not  met  since  the  departure  of 
Odysseus,  some  twenty  years  before,  and  further  that  he  wonders 
who  it  is  who  has  called  them  together  now.  The  former 
statement  seems  to  indicate  that  such  meetings  were  not  held 
regularly,  while  the  latter  at  first  sight  suggests  that  it  was  open 
to  anyone  to  call  them,  and  consequently  that  they  were  of  a 
quite  informal  character — in  spite  of  certain  rules  of  procedure 
which  seem  to  have  been  usually  followed.  But  the  conditions 
here  are  abnormal.  The  king  has  disappeared  arid  no  one  has 
yet  taken  his  place ;  Aigyptios  is  perhaps  scarcely  prepared  to 
expect  that  the  young  Telemachos  would  summon  the  assembly. 
It  is  true  that  in  II.  I  54  ff.  the  Achaeans  are  called  together  by 
Achilles,  not  Agamemnon  ;  but  here  we  have  to  deal  with  a 
confederate  army  in  the  field ^,  and  with  a  prince  who  shortly 
afterwards  sets  Agamemnon's  authority  at  open  defiance.  There 
is  scarcely  sufficient  ground  for  supposing  that  a  similar  course 
would  have  been  possible  at  home,  when  the  king  was  on  the  spot. 
Further,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  on  all  the  above  occasions  the 
notice  served  is  so  short  that  only  those  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood could  attend.  On  the  whole  then  we  are  probably 
justified  in  doubting  whether  any  definite  rules  existed  as  to 

^  A  trace  of  the  belief  that  kings  had  power  over  the  seasons  (cf.  p.  367)  may 
perhaps  be  found  in  Od.   xix   109  ff. 

*  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  evidence  derived  from  the  Achaean  gatherings  in 
the  Iliad  is  somewhat  precarious  ground  on  which  to  build  up  a  theory  regarding 
the  constitutional  rights  possessed  by  the  dyop-^  at  home.  The  same  remark  applies 
to  such  a  passage  as  Od.  xn  297,  where  an  important  constitutional  change  (cf.  Fanta, 
o/>.  cit.,  p.  91)  has  been  inferred  from  the  mutinous  behaviour  of  a  ship's  crew. 


XVIlJ  GOVERNMENT   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  383 

when  the  assembly  should  be  called,  and  indeed  whether  this 
body  had  much  in  common  with  the  constitutionally  regulated 
assemblies  of  historical  times^  It  seems  rather  to  be  a  more  or 
less  fortuitous  gathering  called  together  on  the  spot  by  criers 
when  the  king  wishes  to  bring  something  before  the  notice  of 
the  public^. 

In  Od.  Ill  5  ff.  we  certainly  do  hear  of  a  great  public  gathering 
— indeed  we  may  probably  say  a  national  gathering — of  a  kind 
which  can  only  have  taken  place  at  definitely  fixed  times.  But 
it  is  clear  that  this  was  essentially  a  religious  festivals  Such 
gatherings  may  of  course  have  been  used  for  political  purposes, 
as  in  the  North  ;  but  we  have  no  information  on  this  subject. 

The  Achaean  'council  of  elders'  {^ovXtj  yepovrcov)  in  the 
Iliad  seems  to  be  a  body  of  quite  as  informal  character  as  the 
assembly.  On  several  occasions  Agamemnon  calls  together  a 
small  number  of  princes,  namely  Nestor,  Idomeneus,  the  two 
Aiantes,  Diomedes  and  Odysseus,  together  with  his  brother 
Menelaos.  This  number  of  course  forms  only  a  small  proportion 
of  the  leading  men  in  the  army.     Occasionally  however  we  find 

^  It  cannot  fairly  be  argued  from  Od.  II  192  f.  that  the  assembly  (apart  from  the 
king)  has  a  right  to  impose  fines,  for  the  suitors  here  are  relying  not  upon  any 
*  constitutional '  rights  but  on  force  majeure.  It  is  to  be  remembered  too  that 
Eurymachos  appears  to  have  designs  upon  the  throne  (cf.  p.  358  f.). 

^  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  true  name  for  such  a  gathering  was  dduKos  (Owkos) 
and  that  this  was  something  different  from  the  dyop-^  (cf.  Fanta,  o/>.  cit.,  p.  77);  but 
the  evidence  for  such  a  distinction  is  very  far  from  convincing.  We  may  refer  to 
such  passages  as  Od.  XI i  318  and,  more  especially,  to  v  3  (BGjKbvbe),  which  is  clearly 
parallel  to  II.  xx  4  (dYopTjj'Se).     Cf.  Finsler,  N.Jakrb.,  xiii  327. 

^  In  the  Hymn  to  the  Delian  Apollo,  v.  146  ff.,  mention  is  made  of  a  festal 
gathering  of  lonians  at  Delos,  apparently  on  a  considerable  scale.  Similar  gatherings 
may  have  been  in  existence  quite  as  early,  or  even  earlier,  in  other  parts  of  Greece. 
For  the  festival  at  Pylos  however  much  better  parallels  are  to  be  found  in  the  great 
religious  gatherings  which  took  place  every  nine  years  at  Leire  and  Upsala,  the  old 
Danish  and  Swedish  capitals.  Cf.  Thietmar  of  Merseburg,  Chron.  19:  est  unus  in 
his  partibus  locus... Lederun  nomine... ubi  post  nouem  annos,  mense  lanuario . . .omnes 
conuenerunt  et  ibi  diis  suismet  XCIX  homines  et  iotidem  equos  cum  canibus  et  gallis  pro 
accipitribus  oblatis  immolant.  And  Adam  of  Bremen,  iv  27  :  solet  quoque post  nouem 
annos  communis  omniuin  Sueoniae  prouintiarum  sollempnitas  in  Ubsola  celebrari.  ad 
quam  uidelicet  sollempnitatem  nulli  praestatur  immunitas.  reges  et  populi  omnes  et 
singuli  sua  dona  transmittunt  ad  Ubsolam.  It  does  not  appear  however  that  on  these 
occasions — in  contrast  with  the  festival  at  Pylos — any  of  the  victims  were  eaten.  In 
this  respect  they  are  probably  to  be  compared  rather  with  the  great  quadrennial 
sacrifices  of  the  Gauls ;  cf.  Diodoros,  v.  32. 


384  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Others  summoned,  such  as  Meges  and  even  Thrasymedes  and 
Meriones,  who  are  not  the  chiefs  of  contingents.  The  council  of 
an  expeditionary  army  however  is  an  exceptional  case.  On  the 
Trojan  side  we  hear  of  a  number  of  8r)/j,oyepovT€^  with  Priam 
(II.  HI  146  ff.),  seven  of  whom  are  named.  Three  of  them  are 
brothers  of  the  king,  while  others  are  fathers  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished Trojan  warriors.  They  are  described  as  eloquent 
orators,  but  no  account  is  given  of  their  deliberations.  In  the 
Odyssey  references  to  councils  are  very  rare.  No  mention  is 
made  of  such  a  body  in  Ithaca.  In  Scheria  however  Alcinoos 
has  twelve  kings  under  him  (VIII  390  f.),  who  clearly  form  his 
council  and  are  to  be  identified  with  the  '  leaders  and  rulers  of 
the  Phaeacians '  {^atijKcov  r)<yrjTopes  rj^e  fxeSovTe<i)  who  feasted  in 
his  hall  (VII  98  f,  186;  VIII  26,  41,  46  {.),  though  on  Odysseus' 
arrival  they  were  apparently  not  all  present  (vii  189).  It  may 
be  observed  that  in  the  account  of  the  Phaeacian  assembly 
Alcinoos  uses  the  same  formula  as  when  he  is  addressing  the 
princes  in  his  hall :  "  Hearken,  ye  leaders  and  rulers  of  the 
Phaeacians."  His  speech  then  is  directed  primarily  to  the 
princes — a  fact  which  seems  to  indicate  that  council  and  as- 
sembly were  not  very  clearly  distinguished.  In  this  connection 
we  may  note  that  in  the  assemblies  of  the  Iliad,  as  in  those  of 
the  ancient  Germans,  the  speaking  is  almost  invariably  left  to 
the  princes. 

So  far  as  the  councils  of  the  Iliad  are  concerned  little  can 
be  said  against  the  view  that  Agamemnon  calls  together  from 
time  to  time  those  of  the  leaders  in  whom  he  has  most  con- 
fidence. The  same  may  be  true  of  Alcinoos'  counciP.  But  on 
the  whole  it  seems  more  probable  that  this  is  a  permanent 
institution,  with  definitely  fixed  numbers  and  privileges.  The 
''  sceptre-bearing '  under-kings  are  twelve  in  number,  like  the 
councils  of  so  many  European  peoples  in  ancient  times.  The 
agora  where  they  meet,  with  its  polished  stones,  is  clearly  a  place 
specially  constructed  for  such  functions  and  similar  apparently 

•  It  is  scarcely  capable  of  proof  that  the  picture  of  the  Phaeacian  community  in 
the  Odyssey  is  derived  from  a  Greek  model  (cf.  p.  297  f.  and  note) ;  but  I  believe  I  am 
following  the  generally  accepted  view  in  assuming  this  to  be  the  case.  The  features 
noted  here  are  such  as  we  might  expect  to  find  in  a  Greek  community  if  we  take  into 
account  the  evidence  of  later  times. 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  385 

to  the  one  described  in  the  trial  scene  depicted  on  Achilles' 
shield  (II.  XVIII  497  fif.),  where  the  elders  are  seated  on  polished 
stones  '  in  a  sacred  circle.'  We  are  reminded  here  of  the  Northern 
council  of  the  gods — especially  as  described  in  Gautreks  Saga, 
cap.  7^ — and  of  the  'circle  of  judgement'  {domhringr),  which 
we  find  at  'chief-places'  (i.e.  centres  of  jurisdiction)  in  Iceland. 
Possibly  too  we  should  refer  to  the  stones  used  in  the  election 
of  Scandinavian  kings  (cf.  p.  368).  If  we  take  the  evidence  as 
a  whole  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  the  Phaeacian  council  does 
seem  to  show  the  characteristics  of  a  primitive  communal  organi- 
sationl  But  it  would  be  unwise  to  assume  that  councils  of  this 
type  were  universal  in  the  Heroic  Age. 

The  actual  power  possessed  by  the  council,  whatever  its 
constitution,  does  not  seem  to  amount  to  much.  Agamemnon 
is  often  ready  to  take  advice  from  some  of  his  colleagues, 
especially  Nestor;  and  in  Od.  Vll  167  ff.  Alcinoos  acts  on 
the  suggestion  of  the  old  Echeneos.  Both  these  cases  may 
be  compared  with  the  story  of  Genseric  (cf.  p.  369  f.*).  But  it 
is  clearly  as  individuals  that  the  councillors  have  influence.  In 
the  Iliad  Achilles  acts  on  his  own  initiative  and  withdraws  from 
the  war  in  open  defiance  of  Agamemnon.  But  even  in  the  case 
of  home  councils — I  mean  councils  of  the  kingdoms — we  never 
hear  of  organised  action.  In  Ithaca,  where  the  king  is  away,  no 
council  seems  to  exist.  Nor  is  ai)y  mention  made  of  a  council 
in  the  story  of  Agamemnon's  death  and  Orestes'  vengeance. 
This  fact  deserves  to  be  remarked  all  the  more  because  we  find 

^  We  may  refer  also  to  the  rokstolar  (judgement-seats)  on  which  the  gods  sit 
when  they  gather  in  session  (Voluspa,  str.  9,  23,  25). 

^  For  a  true  analogy  we  must  of  course  turn  to  councils  which  were  attached  to 
the  king's  court.  Such  appears  to  have  been  the  case  with  the  twelve  chiefs  of  the 
Uppland  Swedes  who,  according  to  St  Olaf's  Saga  (Heimskr.),  cap.  96,  constantly 
attended  the  Swedish  king,  sitting  in  judgement  with  him  and  giving  him  advice  in 
matters  of  difficulty.  If  the  meaning  of  Od.  xili  130  is  that  the  Phaeacians  in  general 
are  descended  from  Poseidon,  we  have  a  further  analogy  with  the  same  community, 
who  appear  to  have  claimed  descent  from  the  god  Frey.  Cf.  Saxo,  p.  260  (in  the 
catalogue  of  Ringo's  warriors  at  Bravalla)  :  At  Sueonum  fortissimi  hi  fuere...qui 
quideni  Fr^  dei  necessarii  erant  et  fidissimi  numinum  arbitri . . .iideni  quoque  ad  Fr^ 
deum  generis  sui principium  referebant. 

^  For  Genseric's  disregard  of  the  general  opinion  of  those  present  a  parallel  is 
presented  by  Agamemnon's  conduct  in  II.  i  22  ff. 

25 


386  GOVERNMENT    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

apparently  just  the  same  phenomenon  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry, 
e.g.  in  Beowulf  where  the  proceedings  after  Hygelac's  death  are 
related.  The  natural  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  evidence 
is  that  the  councillors  were  essentially  advisers  to  the  king  and 
that  after  his  death  or  disappearance  their  standing  was  gone. 
But  here  again  caution  is  necessary.  It  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  such  a  description  can  be  true  of  a  council  like  that  of  the 
Phaeacians,  however  ready  they  may  seem  to  follow  the  king 
in  ordinary  circumstances. 

The  cases  of  emergency  arising  out  of  the  misfortunes  of 
Odysseus  and  Agamemnon  bring  to  our  attention  another 
curious  feature,  again  possibly  analogous  to  the  conditions 
described  in  Beowulf,  namely  that  the  king  does  not  seem  to 
appoint  a  regent  in  his  absence^  Odysseus  has  entrusted  his 
household  to  Mentor  (Od.  II  226  (.),  and  Agamemnon  has  put 
his  wife  in  charge  of  a  minstrel  (id.  Ill  267  f.) ;  but  nothing  is 
said  of  the  kingdom  in  either  case.  Are  we  to  suppose  that 
the  queen  is  the  person  in  authority }  Presumably,  like  Hygd, 
she  has  command  over  the  treasury  ;  for  (as  also  perhaps  in  the 
North)  the  treasury  seems  to  be  connected  with  the  queen's 
chamber.  If  it  be  objected  that  the  absence  of  any  national 
control  apart  from  the  king's  (or  queen's)  personal  authority 
must  have  been  productive  of  strife,  we  have  only  to  refer  to 
the  stories  to  see  that  dissensions,  especially  between  members 
of  the  same  family,  were  by  no  means  of  rare  occurrence. 

With  regard  to  international  relations  warfare  between 
different  kingdoms  does  not  seem  to  be  particularly  common. 
Apart  from  the  siege  of  Troy  we  hear  incidentally  of  a  number 
of  struggles,  such  as  the  two  expeditions  against  Thebes,  the 
war  of  the  Aetolians  against  the  Curetes,  and  those  of  the 
Arcadians  and  the  Epeioi  against  Pylos,  while  references  to 
buccaneering  exploits  are  frequent.  But  on  the  whole  the 
normal  state  of  relations  between  the  various  kingdoms  is  one 
of  peace. 

As  in  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age,  we  hear  frequently  of 
marriages  between  different  royal  families.  Agamemnon's  offer 
of  one  of  his  daughters  to  Achilles  is  part  of  his  attempt  at 

^  Cf.  Seymour,  Li/e  in  the  Homeric  Age,  p.  8i. 


I 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  387 

reconciliation  and  may  be  compared  with  the  marriage  of  Ingeld 
and  Freawaru.  Menelaos  marries  his  daughter  to  Achilles'  son. 
Both  these  cases  show  that  such  marriages  were  not  limited  to 
neighbouring  families.  So  also  Penelope  the  daughter  of  Icarios 
(whose  home  is  not  stated  in  the  poems)  has  married  the  king 
of  Ithaca,  while  her  sister  is  the  wife  of  Eumelos  at  Pherai  in 
Thessaly  (Od.  IV  795  ff.).  Such  marriages  would  doubtless  do 
much  towards  promoting  friendly  relations  between  the  various 
royal  families.  Indeed  visits  paid  by  one  prince  to  another 
seem  to  be  nothing  very  unusual  ^  Autolycos  visits  his  son-in- 
law  Laertes  in  Ithaca,  and  Odysseus  later  goes  to  stay  with 
Autolycos  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Parnassos.  Helen  recognises 
several  of  the  Achaean  princes  from  the  walls  of  Troy  and 
remarks  (II.  Ill  232  f)  that  Idomeneus  had  frequently  been 
entertained  by  Menelaos  in  her  old  home. 

Again,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  the  expedition  against 
Troy  involves  the  existence  of  relations  of  some  kind  between 
Agamemnon  and  the  other  kings.  But  the  character  of 
Agamemnon's  position  in  Greece  itself  is  never  clearly  defined 
in  the  poems.  According  to  Od.  XXIV  115  ff.  he  has  consider- 
able difficulty  in  persuading  Odysseus  to  take  part  in  the 
expedition.  On  the  other  hand  in  II.  XIII  669  we  hear  of 
a  fine  (dayrj)  for  those  who  refused  to  served  This  passage 
however  refers  to  a  native  of  Corinth,  who  was  doubtless  a 
much  nearer  neighbour.  Indeed  the  Catalogue  of  Ships  (II.  II 
569  ff.)  represents  the  Corinthian  contingent  as  under  Aga- 
memnon's immediate  command.  According  to  this  section  of 
the  poem  Agamemnon's  own  territories  consist  of  the  north- 
western part  of  Argolis,  together  with  at  least  the  eastern  half 
of  Achaia,  while  the  rest  of  Argolis  belongs  to  Diomedes  and 
his    colleagues.       But    in    IX    149  ff.    (291  ff.)    it    is    clear    that 

1  It  may  be  observed  here  that  we  often  hear  also  of  journeys  for  trade  and  other 
purposes,  as  in  Od.  ill  366  ff.,  where  Athene,  disguised  as  Mentor,  says  she  is  going 
to  the  land  of  the  Caucones  to  collect  a  debt.  Voyages  even  to  countries  as  distant 
as  Egypt  and  Phoenicia  are  not  unknown. 

^  Cf.  XXIII  296  ff.,  where  a  certain  Echepolos  (presumably  a  fictitious  character) 
is  said  to  have  given  Agamemnon  a  mare  in  order  that  he  might  be  excused  from 
the  expedition.  This  person  belongs  to  Sicyon,  another  adjacent  city  and  likewise 
included  in  Agamemnon's  domain  in  the  Catalogue  of  Ships. 


388  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Agamemnon  possesses  part  of  Messenia,  bordering  apparently  on 
Pylos  (the  territory  of  Nestor).  Further,  we  have  to  take  into 
account  that,  apart  from  the  Catalogue,  neither  poem  gives 
evidence  for  the  existence  of  anything  which  can  fairly  be 
called  a  kingdom  in  the  Peloponnesos,  except  Pylos,  Elis  and 
the  territories  of  the  two  brothers'.  Taking  the  positive  and 
negative  evidence  together  it  seems  probable  that  Agamemnon 
and  his  brother  were  regarded  as  ruling  over  the  greater  part 
of  the  peninsula,  though  certain  cities  and  districts  remained 
in  possession  of  native  princes,  perhaps  in  a  dependent  position. 
Again,  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  any  evidence  apart  from 
the  Catalogue  for  supposing  that  the  territories  of  the  two 
brothers  were  regarded  as  definitely  marked  off  from  one 
another.  From  II.  IX  149  ff.,  taken  together  with  the  references 
to  Sparta  and  Mycenae,  we  may  infer  the  contrary.  On  the 
whole  it  seems  more  probable  that  we  have  here  to  do  with 
a  case  of  divided  kingship,  as  so  frequently  among  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  rather  than  with  two  separate  kingdoms.  In  that  case 
too  we  shall  obtain  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  later 
tradition  (cf.  p.  240)  which  claimed  Agamemnon  for  Sparta 
or  Amyclai. 

Beyond  his  own  territories  Agamemnon's  authority  does 
not  seem  to  be  represented  as  anything  more  than  a  somewhat 
indefinite  hegemony — comparable  probably  with  the  relationship 
of  Theodric  the  Ostrogoth  to  his  northern  allies  (cf  p.  373  f.). 
The  army  which  he  leads  against  Troy  is  furnished  partly  by  his 
own  subjects  and  partly  by  a  number  of  princes  whose  positions 
may  have  varied  from  complete  dependence  to  something  which 
may  best  be  described  as  alliance.  A  good  parallel  is  to  be 
found  in  the  army  led  by  the  Mercian  king  Penda  against  Oswio, 
which  according  to  Bede  {H.  E.  Ill  24)  consisted  of  thirty  legiones 
under  regii  duces.  Among  these  were  the  king  of  East  Anglia 
and  several  Welsh  kings. 

1  The  evidence  of  the  Catalogue  as  to  the  dimensions  of  Diomedes'  dominions  is 
not  corroborated  elsewhere  in  the  Iliad.  The  author  may  of  course  have  derived  his 
information  from  other  sources,  e.g.  from  poems  dealing  with  the  story  of  Adrastos 
and  the  expedition  against  Thebes.  But  it  is  at  least  equally  possible  that  he  was 
influenced  by  the  desire  of  providing  each  king  with  dominions  comprised  in  a  com- 
pact geographical  area. 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  389 

How  Agamemnon  acquired  his  imperial  position  we  are  not 
told;  for  scarcely  anything  is  recorded  of  his  doings  before  the 
Trojan  war.  From  II.  II  104  ff  we  may  perhaps  infer  that  his 
family  had  held  a  preeminent  position  before  him\  although 
Pelops  was  located  by  later  tradition  in  a  different  part  of  the 
peninsula^.  Nor  again  is  it  made  clear  whether  the  hegemony 
remained  with  the  family  after  Agamemnon's  death.  All  that 
can  be  said  is  that  the  Odyssey  represents  Menelaos  as  a  very 
wealthy  king  and  that  neither  the  poems  nor  later  tradition  give 
any  hint  of  the  rise  of  a  new  power  in  the  Peloponnesos  before 
the  '  Return  of  the  Heracleidai.'  What  may  be  regarded  as 
certain  is  that  no  individual  Greek  prince  attained  to  such  a 
supremacy  again,  for  many  centuries  after  the  close  of  the 
Heroic  Age. 

In  conclusion  we  must  consider  briefly  the  question  how  far 
the  Homeric  kingdoms  rested  upon  a  national  or  tribal  basis  (cf. 
p.  375  ff.).  Upon  this  question  the  nomenclature  of  the  poems 
seems  to  throw  some  light.  In  the  north  of  Greece,  except  the 
plain  of  Thessaly,  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  kingdoms  bear 
what  are  apparently  national  or  tribal  names,  e.g.  Bokotol, 
AoKpoi,  AoX,o7r€9,  'Ei^iT^i/e?,  M.dyvrjre';,  AItwXol,  "AySai^re?  — 
probably  also  <t>&)«?)6<f  and  Mup/u,i86v€<i  (' EXXtjve'i).  The  same 
is  true  of  kingdoms  outside  Greece,  e.g.  ^ait^Ke^,  Tpooe<i  and  the 
various  Trojan  allies.  But  in  the  Peloponnesos  the  only  names 
of  this  type  are  'ETreiot,  'Ap^aSe?  and  KavKO)ve<i ;  for  TivXtot  and 
'Apyeloi  are  not  primary  national  names  but  derivatives  of  IIl'Xo? 
and  "A/3709,  while  'A'x^aioi  is  a  name,  like  Engle^  applied  to  the 
inhabitants  of  many  kingdoms.  This  evidence,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
tends  to  indicate  that  the  southern  kingdoms  rested  on  a  political 
or  military  rather  than  a  tribal  basis — which  is  natural  enough 

^  The  passage  suggests  that  the  <jK7\-Krpov  is  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  authority. 
Thyestes  here  appears  between  Atreus  and  Agamemnon.  In  Od.  iv  517  f.  Aigisthos 
is  said  to  have  dwelt  where  Thyestes  had  formerly  dwelt,  though  unfortunately  the 
locality  is  not  stated.  The  two  passages  however  are  not  necessarily  inconsistent, 
for  it  does  not  follow  that  Agamemnon,  when  he  took  the  imperium,  would  deprive 
his  relative  of  the  estate  on  which  he  lived.  For  the  method  of  succession — which 
was  of  course  extremely  liable  to  produce  strife — many  Teutonic  parallels  might  be 
cited.   We  may  refer  to  the  events  which  took  place  on  the  death  of  Alfred  the  Great. 

-  Thucydides  (i  9)  relates  how  Atreus  acquired  the  sovereignty  at  Mycenae ;  but 
his  account  seems  to  be  largely  in  the  nature  of  a  conjecture. 


390  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

if  we  are  right  in  believing  that  the  Peloponnesian  Achaeans 
were  an  ofifshoot  from  the  Achaeans  of  northern  Greece.  It 
would  seem  then  that  these  kingdoms  are  to  be  compared  with 
the  newer  kingdoms  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age,  the  nucleus 
of  which  consisted  of  the  kings  with  their  military  followings ; 
and  I  am  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  any  evidence  inconsistent 
with  this  view.  I  do  not  mean  of  course  that  these  kingdoms 
were  necessarily  areas  carved  out  by  the  sword,  like  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  kingdoms.  What  I  mean  is  that  we  have  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  Agamemnon's  subjects  believed  themselves  to 
be  of  a  different  nationality  from  Nestor's  subjects  or  the  rest 
of  the  Achaeans  and  that  each  of  these  kingdoms  had  a  separate 
tribal  organisation  and  tradition  of  its  own. 

If  our  observation  is  correct  it  is  important  to  notice  that 
several  of  the  chief  Achaean  leaders  belong  to  kingdoms  which 
apparently  rest  on  a  non-national  basis.  Among  them  we  have 
to  include  not  only  Agamemnon,  Menelaos  and  Nestor,  but  also 
probably  Idomeneus ;  for  the  name  Kpr^re?  in  the  Homeric 
poems  can  scarcely  mean  anything  else  than  inhabitants  of 
Crete.  The  followers  of  Diomedes  and  of  Aias,  the  son  of 
Telamon,  likewise  appear  to  bear  no  national  names.  The 
case  of  Odysseus  is  doubtful,  since  his  subjects  are  described 
both  as  'Axatol  and  Ke(f)aX\,rjv€<;.  The  question  is  whether  he 
is  king  of  the  Cephallenes  in  general  or  only  king  of  Ithaca, 
with  a  temporary  lordship  over  the  rest  of  the  nation.  The 
only  '  heroes  of  the  first  rank '  who  clearly  represent  national 
kingdoms  are  Achilles  and  Aias  the  son  of  Oileus. 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  noticed  many  remark- 
able resemblances  between  the  Homeric  and  the  early  Teutonic 
systems  of  government.  Not  all  of  these  however  can  be  regarded 
as  characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age ;  some  have  been  inherited 
in  all  probability  from  an  earlier  stage  of  development.  Such 
are  the  religious  type  of  kingship,  the  council  of  twelve  and  the 
national  gathering  for  religious  (sacrificial)  purposes i.    The  form 

'  Among  the  Teutonic  peoples  we  have  records  of  such  gatherings  from  the  first 
century  (cf.  p.  369,  note)  to  the  eleventh  (at  Upsala;  cf.  p.  383,  note).  There  is 
evidence  also  for  similar  festivals  among  the  Lithuanians  and  Prussians ;  cf.  Matthias 


XVIl]  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  391 

of  government  truly  characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age  in  both 
areas  alike  is  an  irresponsible  type  of  kingship,  resting  not  upon 
tribal  or  national  law — which  is  of  little  account — but  upon 
military  prestige.  Such  kingdoms  are  often  of  recent  origin 
and  without  roots  in  any  national  organisation.  The  assembly 
here,  so  far  as  it  exists  at  all,  is  a  gathering  summoned  at  the 
king's  pleasure,  while  the  council  consists  of  an  indefinite  number 
of  his  trusted  followers,  whose  advice  he  may  wish  to  have 
from  time  to  time.  Lastly,  we  may  observe  in  both  cases  a  very 
strong  tendency  to  develop  intercourse  between  one  kingdom 
and  another — partly  by  royal  marriages  and  partly  by  the 
cultivation  of  personal  relations  between  the  kings,  which 
generally  take  the  form  of  a  recognition  of  overlordship,  though 
in  varying  degree.  The  general  effect  of  this  intercourse  must 
have  been  to  produce  something  in  the  nature  of  an  international 
royal  caste,  and  to  break  down  tribal  and  local  prejudices,  at 
least  in  the  highest  ranks  of  society. 

With  the  end  of  the  Heroic  Age  the  lines  followed  by 
Teutonic  and  Greek  political  history  part  company.  In  both 
cases,  it  is  true,  we  find  a  revival  of  national  feeling.  Among 
the  Teutonic  peoples  however  the  kingdoms  constantly  tend  to 
decrease  in  number  and  increase  in  size — partly  by  the  process 
sketched  above  (p.  375)  and  partly  by  pressure  from  without. 
In  Greece  on  the  other  hand  this  tendency  was  brought  to  an 
abrupt  end^  by  the  Thessalian  and  Dorian  conquests,  by  which 
the  richest  parts  of  the  country  were  brought  into  the  power  of 
populations  in  a  lower  stage  of  civilisation  and  governed  largely 

a  Michov,  De  Sartn.  Europ.,  Lib.  n  (in  Grynaeus'  Novus  Orbis  Terrarum,  etc., 
Basel  1537,  p.  519)  •■  insuper  prima  Octobris  die  maxitna  per  Samagittas  in  syluis 
praefatis  celebritas  agebattir,  et  ex  otnni  regione  uniuersus  utriusque  sexus  conueniens 
illuc  populus  cibos  et  potiis  qziilibet  iuxta  suae  conditionis  qitalificationem  deferebat ; 
quibiis  aliquot  diebus  epidati  diis  suis  falsis,  praecipue  deo  lingua  eorum  appellato 
Perkuno,  id  est  tonitni,  ad  focos  qitisque  suos  offerebat  libamina. 

^  It  is  important  to  notice  that  the  tendency  appears  to  have  been  by  no  means 
so  far  developed  as  in  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age.  We  cannot  tell,  it  is  true,  how  far 
the  various  dependent  cities  and  districts  remained  in  the  hands  of  native  royal  families 
and  how  far  they  were  governed  by  officials.  In  the  latter  category  we  may  include 
such  a  person  as  Phoinix  (II.  ix  483  f.).  But  it  is  clear  that  the  royal  families  form 
a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  population  than  was  the  case  among  the  Teutonic 
peoples  of  the  fifth  century. 


392  GOVERNMENT   IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE      [CHAP.  XVII 

by  tribal  principles  and  prejudices.  The  general  effect  of  these 
movements  was  to  isolate  the  various  communities — not  only 
in  the  conquered  provinces  but  also  in  those  districts,  such  as 
Attica,  which  remained  entirely  or  comparatively  untouched. 
This  isolation  in  turn  was  probably  favourable  to  the  growth 
of  internal  dissensions.  In  the  end  at  all  events  no  king  suc- 
ceeded in  maintaining  a  personal  lordship  over  the  rest  of  his 
class\  even  within  the  smallest  communities.  The  title  came 
to  denote  an  official  with  constantly  diminishing  powers,  often 
indeed  of  an  exclusively  religious  character,  while  the  allegiance 
formerly  owed  to  an  individual  was  now  transferred  to  the  state 
and  its  constitution  ^  At  a  later  date,  it  is  true,  most  of  the 
Greek  states  again  came  for  a  time  into  the  power  of  individual 
rulers.  But  it  is  not  until  the  days  of  Philip  II,  king  of  the 
Macedonians,  that  we  find  any  single  man  holding  an  authority 
over  the  Greek  world  such  as  the  poems  attribute  to  Agamemnon. 

^  Teutonic  analogies  occur,  though  they  are  not  common.  We  may  instance 
Bede's  account  {H.  E.  iv  12)  of  what  took  place  after  the  death  of  Coenwalh,  king 
of  Wessex  (about  673) :  acceperunt  subreguli  regnum  gentis  et  diuisum  inter  se  tenuerunt 
annis  circiter  X,  after  which  deuictis  atque  amotis  subregulis  Caedualla  suscepit  imperiu?n. 
The  Saxon  Chronicle  certainly  gives  a  different  impression  ;  and  from  Eddius,  Vita 
Wilfridi,  cap.  40,  it  appears  that  Centwine's  authority  was  recognised  at  least  to 
some  extent.  Reference  may  also  be  made  to  Procopius'  statement  {Goth.  11  14) 
that — early  in  Justinian's  reign — the  Heruli  slew  their  king,  aWo  ovbkv  iireveyKores 
ij  8ti  d^aaiXevroL  to  Xoiirdv  ^ovXovrai  elvai ;  but  the  interregnum  was  of  short  duration. 
Earlier  cases  may  be  found  among  the  Cherusci  and  other  peoples  of  western  Germany 
during  the  first  century — where  it  is  to  be  noted  that  Tacitus'  principes  and  regnum 
correspond  to  Bede's  subreguli  and  imperium  respectively.  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  much  confusion  has  been  introduced  into  early  Greek  history  through  failure  to 
distinguish  between  kingship  and  lordship. 

"^  This  is  true  even  of  Sparta.  We  may  quote  Herodotus'  account  (vii  104)  of 
Demaratos'  speech  to  Xerxes  :  ^XeOdepoi  yap  edvres  (sc.  oi  AaKedaifj-dvioL)  ov  iravra 
eXeCOepoL  elfff  ^ireffTi  ydp  <T<pi  deairdTTji  vS/xos,  rbv  viroSeifiaLvovffi  iroXXtfi  ?ti  fiaXXov 
17  ol  ffol  ffi.  It  is  the  recognition  of  this  impersonal  force — not  of  course  any  sense 
of  universal  right,  but  the  '  law '  of  the  community — which  perhaps  most  clearly 
distinguishes  post-heroic  and  pre-heroic  society  from  that  of  the  Heroic  Age.  The 
existence  of  such  a  force — operating,  under  religious  sanction  (cf.  p.  366),  as  a  restraint 
upon  the  king's  freedom  of  action — is  implied  by  Tacitus,  Germ.  7,  11.  But  it  is 
a  strange  misunderstanding  which  has  led  several  scholars  to  compare  the  former  of 
these  passages  with  Beow.  73,  where  the  limitations  stated  are  those  of  Hrothgar's 
generosity,  not  of  his  power. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

RELIGION    IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE. 

In  the  course  of  the  Heroic  Age  many  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  were  converted  to  Christianity.  The  change  of  faith 
began  among  the  Goths  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century  and  must  have  spread  very  quickly  to  the  Vandals. 
The  Gepidae  and  Langobardi  seem  to  have  followed  the  example 
of  these  peoples  in  the  course  of  the  following  century.  At  the 
time  of  Justinian's  accession  the  Heruli  were  probably  the  only 
Teutonic  people  in  eastern  central  Europe  who  remained  heathen. 
In  the  west  the  Burgundians  accepted  Christianity  apparently 
about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  and  the  Franks  before 
its  close.  The  conversion  of  England  took  place  in  the  seventh 
century ;  that  of  the  Frisians  and  Old  Saxons  for  the  most  part 
in  the  eighth.  The  Northern  Kingdoms  in  general  were  little 
affected  by  the  change  until  towards  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century,  though  the  first  missionary  efforts  in  Denmark  and 
Sweden  began  before  the  middle  of  the  ninth.  In  parts  of 
Sweden  the  heathen  religion  lingered  on  until  late  in  the 
eleventh  century. 

In  the  Nibelungenlied  it  is  clearly  recognised,  perhaps  through 
scholastic  influence,  that  the  multitude  assembled  at  Attila's  court 
included  both  Christians  and  heathens ;  but  no  such  distinction 
is  drawn  in  the  English  and  Norse  poems.  In  the  former  all 
the  characters  are  made  to  speak  as  Christians,  though  they 
observe  heathen  rites  ;  in  the  latter  no  indication  is  given  that 
any  of  the  characters  were  Christians.  In  point  of  fact  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  most  of  the  persons  who  figure  in  the 
heroic  stories  were  heathens.     In  all  probability  such  was  the 


394  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

case  with  the  earlier  Goths,  Eormenric  and  his  contemporaries, 
as  well  as  with  all  the  characters  of  the  Danish  cycles.  On  the 
other  hand  the  later  Goths,  Theodric  and  his  contemporaries, 
were  certainly  Christians,  and  so  also  were  the  Burgundians, 
Guthhere  and  his  brothers,  as  well  as  Alboin,  king  of  the 
Langobardi. 

With  the  Christian  religion  we  are  not  concerned  here  ;  for, 
greatly  as  it  influenced  the  Teutonic  peoples,  it  was  in  no  sense 
native.  It  is  to  the  religion  which  Christianity  displaced  that 
we  must  give  our  attention.  Unfortunately  however  the  records 
which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Heroic  Age  itself  are 
entirely  of  foreign  authorship,  and  on  the  whole  they  give  us 
extremely  little  information  on  this  subject.  We  are  bound 
therefore  to  base  our  account  of  Teutonic  religion  upon  the 
comparatively  abundant  evidence  preserved  in  Scandinavian 
literature,  though  we  must  not  assume  that  the  religion  of  the 
Heroic  Age  possessed  the  characteristics  which  we  find  in  the 
North  some  five  centuries  later.  When  we  have  given  a  brief 
summary  of  the  chief  features  of  this  later  religion  we  shall 
have  to  discuss  in  somewhat  more  detail  the  small  amount  of 
information  available  for  the  earlier  period.  This  is  rendered 
all  the  more  necessary  by  the  fact  that  in  works  dealing  with 
the  subject  the  religion  of  the  Heroic  Age  has  not  generally 
been  distinguished  from  that  of  the  Germans  of  Tacitus'  time. 

Now  the  feature  which  will  probably  strike  any  one  most 
forcibly  from  a  careful  study  of  Northern  religion  is  an  extra- 
ordinary discrepancy  between  the  mythical  stories  contained 
in  the  Edda  and  elsewhere  on  the  one  hand  and  references  to 
actual  religious  observances  on  the  other.  In  the  former  we 
find  the  gods  grouped  together  in  an  organised  community, 
of  which  Othin  is  the  recognised  head.  Frigg  is  his  wife,  Thor 
and  many  of  the  other  gods  his  sons.  Most  of  the  mythical 
stories  deal  with  Othin's  exploits  and  adventures,  and  serve 
to  illustrate  his  power  and  wisdom.  On  the  other  hand  the 
references  to  religious  rites  point  in  quite  a  different  direction. 
In  Iceland,  for  which  our  records  are  most  full,  there  is  practi- 
cally no  evidence  for  the  worship  of  Othin.  Thor  is  by  far  the 
most  prominent  figure,  and  after  him  Frey ;  occasionally  also 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  395 

we  hear  of  NiorSr^  References  to  the  worship  of  other  super- 
natural beings,  elves  and  landvaettir  {gefiii  locorum),  are  not 
unfrequent.  In  notices  referring  to  Norway  the  evidence  is 
not  very  different.  We  do  indeed  sometimes  hear  of  worship 
paid  to  Othin,  especially  in  legendary  stories,  relating  to  early 
times ;  but  in  references  to  what  may  be  called  the  historical 
period — the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries — Thor  and  Frey  are 
distinctly  more  prominent. 

Two  explanations  have  been  given  of  this  curious  pheno- 
menon. One  is  that  the  cult  of  Othin  was  introduced  into  the 
North  at  a  comparatively  late  period  and  that  it  had  not  yet 
obtained  a  real  hold  at  the  time  when  Iceland  was  settled. 
This  explanation  has  no  foundation  in  tradition.  Indeed  the 
evidence  of  the  stories  points  to  an  entirely  opposite  conclusion. 
Moreover  it  is  worth  noting  that  according  to  Procopius  {Goth. 
II  15)  the  inhabitants  of  'Thule'  (i.e.  Scandinavia)  worshipped 
'  Ares '  more  than  any  other  god.  Since  Othin  is  essentially 
a  god  of  war  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  he  is  the  deity  meant, 
rather  than  the  somewhat  obscure  Tyr. 

The  other  explanation  is  that  the  cults  of  Othin  and  Thor 
belonged  to  two  different  classes  of  the  community,  the  former 
to  princely  families  and  their  retinues,  the  latter  to  the  country 
people,  more  especially  the  (non-official)  landowners.  This 
explanation  seems  to  be  in  complete  accordance  with  the  facts. 
There  is  no  evidence  for  the  worship  of  Othin  either  in  early  or 
late  times  except  by  princes  or  persons  attached  to  their  courts, 
while  there  are  very  few  instances  of  the  worship  of  Thor  by 
such  persons.  Further  we  may  note  that  while  names  com- 
pounded with  Thor-  (e.g.  Thorkell,  Thorolfr)  are  about  the 
commonest  type  of  all  among  the  ordinary  free  population,  both 
in  Norway  and  Iceland — and  such  names  are  significant  since 
they  denote  that  the  persons  who  bore  them  were  dedicated 
to  the  god — they  are   practically  unknown    in    royal    families. 

'  These  are  the  three  gods  mentioned  in  the  solemn  oath  which,  according  to 
Landndmabok,  iv  7  (Hauksbok),  had  to  be  sworn  on  the  sacred  bracelet  at  all  legal 
proceedings  :  hialpi  mir  svd  Freyr  ok  Nior^r  ok  hinn  abndttki  Ass,  etc.  In  the  later 
Melabok  (a  compilation  of  the  seventeenth  century)  it  is  suggested  that  Ass  here 
means  Othin ;  but  I  do  not  think  this  explanation  is  generally  accepted.  It  is  scarcely 
credible  that  Thor  should  be  ignored  on  such  an  occasion. 


396  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE        [CHAP.  XVIII 

It  will  be  convenient  now  to  give  a  short  sketch  of  the  two 
deities  and  their  cults. 

Thor  is  represented  as  a  middle-aged  man  of  immense  bodily 
strength.  He  is  well  disposed  towards  the  human  race  and 
looked  upon  as  their  protector  against  harmful  demons,  to 
whom  he  is  an  implacable  foe.  In  the  poems  ThrymskviSa 
and  HymiskviSa  and  in  a  number  o^  prose  stories  we  have 
descriptions  of  Thor's  adventures  with  giants,  in  which  he  is 
generally  represented  as  breaking  their  skulls  with  his  hammer. 
He  uses  no  weapon  except  the  hammer,  and  when  he  travels 
he  either  walks  or  drives  in  a  car  drawn  by  goats.  When  he 
comes  to  the  assembly  of  the  gods  he  is  said  to  wade  through 
certain  rivers  on  the  way.  His  escort  never  consists  of  more 
than  three  persons ;  very  often  he  goes  alone.  The  picture 
which  the  stories  give  us  is  clearly  that  of  an  idealised  Norwegian 
countryman  of  primitive  times.  There  are  scarcely  any  traces 
of  his  original  connection  with  the  thunder,  though  in  Sweden 
it  was  clearly  remembered. 

The  portraiture  of  Othin  offers  the  greatest  possible  contrast 
to  that  of  Thor.  He  is  represented  as  an  old  man,  generally 
with  one  eye,  and  he  gains  his  ends  not  by  bravery  or  physical 
strength  but  by  wisdom  and  cunning.  Sometimes  we  find  him 
coming,  usually  in  disguise,  to  giants  or  witches,  in  order  to 
gain  from  them  some  magical  power  or  knowledge  of  the  future ; 
sometimes  he  imparts  his  knowledge,  again  generally  magical, 
to  men.  He  presents  his  favourites  with  weapons  and  instructs 
them  in  the  art  of  war.  Above  all  he  is  the  god  who  gives 
victory  in  battle. 

Othin's  chief  dwelling  is  called  Valholl  (the  '  hall  of  the 
slain '),  and  all  persons  who  fall  in  battle  were  believed  to  go  to 
him  there.  Hence  we  find  such  expressions  as  'to  go  to  lodge 
with  Othin'  or  'to  go  to  Valhalla'  used  as  euphemisms  for  'to 
be  killed.'  Before  joining  battle  it  is  said  to  have  been  customary 
to  throw  a  javelin  over  the  enemy  with  the  words  'Othin  has  you 
all.'  After  a  battle  prisoners  were  commonly  sacrificed  to  Othin, 
and  on  such  occasions,  and  indeed  at  all  human  sacrifices,  the 
formula  regularly  used  was  :  '  I  give  thee  to  Othin.'  The  usual 
method  of  sacrifice  was  by  hanging  or  stabbing  or  a  combination 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  397 

of  both.  With  this  practice  we  may  probably  connect  a  some- 
what obscure  myth  recorded  in  Havam^l,  str.  138,  according  to 
which  Othin  was  sacrificed  to  himself,  by  hanging  and  stabbing, 
on  the  world-tree.  Certainly  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  sacrifices 
to  Othin  seem  to  have  been  invariably  human.  They  were 
clearly  rites  of  quite  a  different  character  from  the  sacrificial 
feasts  frequently  mentioned  in  the  sagas,  where  the  victims 
consisted  of  horses,  oxen  and  other  edible  animals,  part  of  which 
was  offered  to  the  gods,  while  the  rest  was  consumed  by  the 
worshippers.  We  do  sometimes  hear  of  horses  being  sacrificed 
with  men,  but  on  such  occasions  dogs  and  hawks  are  also 
mentioned,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  of  the  victims 
were  eaten.  There  are  very  few  records  of  human  sacrifices 
to  any  god  except  Othin. 

The  picture  of  Valhalla  presented  to  us  in  the  poems  is  a 
glorified  copy  of  a  military  king's  courts  The  vast  number  of 
slain  warriors  assembled  there  in  Othin's  service  spend  their 
days  in  single  combats  and  their  evenings  in  feasting.  Beside 
them  we  find  the  Valkyriur  ('  choosers  of  the  slain  '),  Othin's 
adopted  daughters,  who  distribute  ale  to  the  feasters.  These 
also  are  sent  out  by  Othin  to  decide  the  issue  of  battles  and 
to  select  warriors  for  Valhalla.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  term 
Valkyriur  seems  to  be  applied  both  to  supernatural  beings — 
what  may  perhaps  be  called  minor  divinities — and  also  to  living 
women  endowed  with  supernatural  powers,  such  as  that  of 
flying.  Thus  both  Brynhildr  and  Sigrun,  the  wife  of  Helgi 
Hundingsbani,  are  called  Valkyries;  and  it  was  for  deciding 
a  fight  contrary  to  Othin's  command  that  the  former  was 
punished  with  perpetual  sleep. 

In  Ynglinga  Saga,  cap.  8,  Othin  is  said  to  have  ordained 
"  that  all  dead  men  should  be  burnt  and  brought  on  to  the  pyre 
with  their  property.  He  said  that  every  dead  man  should  come 
to  Valholl  with  such  property  as  he  had  on  the  pyre.... But  the 
ashes  were  to  be  cast  out  into  the  sea  or  buried  down  in  the 

1  The  description  in  Grlmnismdl,  str.  23,  curiously  recalls  what  is  said  of  Egyptian 
Thebes  in  II.  ix  383  f.  The  nearest  approach  to  Valhalla  to  be  found  among 
Northern  kingdoms  is  Ibn  Fadhlan's  account  of  the  Russian  court;  cf.  Frahn,  I.e. 
(p.  367,  note). 


398  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC  AGE  [CHAP. 

earth."     Valhalla   seems  to  be   represented    as  a  spirit   world, 
somewhat  far  away  and  not  connected  at  all  with  the  burial- 
place.     This  observation  brings  us  to  another  remarkable  dis- 
crepancy between  the  traditions  and  the  customs  which  we  find 
actually  prevailing  in  the  North.     We  know  both  from  descrip- 
tions in  the  sagas  and  from  discoveries  made  in  modern  times 
that  in  the  last  few  centuries  before  the  adoption  of  Christianity 
it  was  customary  to  bury  the  dead  in  their  ships  or  in  elaborately 
constructed  wooden  chambers — the  whole  being  covered   with 
a   barrow   of  considerable   size.     In    the   Prologue   to   Snorri's 
Heimskringla  this  custom  is  said  to  be  of  later  date  than  the 
one  attributed  to  Othin  ;  first  was  the  age  of  burning,  then  the 
age  of  barrows.     Now   there    is   evidence  both   from  the  dis- 
coveries and  from  the  sagas  themselves  that  the  barrows  were 
regarded  as  sacred  and  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  were  believed 
to  dwell  either  within  them  or  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood. 
Not  unfrequently  we  hear  of  persons  coming  to  a  barrow  to 
consult  the  spirit.    Sometimes  the  ghost,  embodied  in  the  corpse, 
even  defends  his  property  against  grave-robbers.     The  activities 
of  the  dead  are  often  represented  as  injurious  ;  but  this  is  by  no 
means  always  the  case.     On  one  occasion  we  hear  of  a  dispute 
between  several  different  districts  for  the  possession  of  the  body 
of  a  king  whose  reign  had  been  distinguished  by  great  prosperity. 
On  the  whole  then  it  is  clear  that  the  cult  of  the  dead  was 
practised  in  the  North  very  much  as  in  most  other  parts  of  the 
world.     Yet  modern  discoveries  have  brought  to  light  abundant 
evidence  for  cremation    in    the  early  iron   age — sometimes    in 
spots  which  are  marked   by  no  external   monument — so  that 
the  statements  of  Ynglinga  Saga  may  be  regarded  as  based  on 
good   tradition.     We  are  driven  to  conclude  therefore  that  in 
their  conception  of  immortality,  as  in   their  theology,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  North  held  two  wholly  inconsistent  views — or, 
perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say,  two  entirely  opposite 
views  as  to  the  desirability  of  retaining  the  souls  of  the  dead. 
In    Iceland    the   practice   of    cremation   seems    to    have   been 
extremely  rare,  but  when  it  was  resorted  to  the  object  is  said 
to  have  been  to  get  rid  of  a  troublesome  ghost.     The  one  view 
of  immortality  was  by  no  means  so  closely  bound  up  with  the 


XVIIl]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  399 

cult  of  Thor  as  the  other  was  with  that  of  Othin.  But  it 
certainly  prevailed  among  Thor's  worshippers. 

The  next  most  important  deity  after  Othin  and  Thor  was  Frey. 
His  cult  was  widely  spread  in  Norway  and  Iceland  ;  yet  accord- 
ing to  tradition  its  true  home  was  Sweden  \  The  Swedish  royal 
family  and  nobility  traced  their  descent  from  Frey,  and  Upsala, 
their  capital  and  the  chief  sanctuary  of  the  North,  was  believed 
to  have  been  founded  by  him.  In  Ynglinga  Saga,  cap.  12  f, 
we  have  an  account  of  him  which  is  worth  quoting  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  Northern  manes-worship.  Frey  is  here  represented  as  a 
prince  whose  reign  was  characterised  by  unparalleled  prosperity. 
His  death  was  concealed  for  three  years.  But  when  it  became 
known,  the  Swedes  would  not  burn  him  ;  for  they  believed  that 
prosperity  and  peace  would  last  as  long  as  Frey  was  in  Sweden. 
They  made  a  great  barrow  for  him  therefore  and  poured  into  it 
the  tribute  which  they  had  been  wont  to  pay  him  ;  and  they 
worshipped  him  for  prosperity  and  peace  ever  afterwards. 
A  very  similar  account  is  given  of  the  Danish  king  Fr6?5i  the 
Peaceful — from  which  we  may  infer  that  in  Frey  we  have  to 
deal  not  with  a  deified  man  but  with  a  mythical  character 
— a  'king  of  the  golden  age.'  His  name  originally  seems  to 
have  meant  'prince'  or  'lord'  (Ang.-Sa.x. /rea,  cf  «Wf);  very 
probably  it  was  at  one  time  a  title  of  the  Swedish  kings^ 

Frey  appears  to  be  regarded  as  a  youthful  god.  The 
blessings  for  which  he  was  worshipped  were  peace  and  fertility, 
both  of  the  crops  and  livestock,  as  well  as  of  the  human  race. 
His  power  of  controlling  the  weather  may  be  accounted  for  by 
his  association  with  the  Swedish  kings  (cf.  p.  367)  ;  but  it  is 
clear  that  his  character  contains  elements  drawn  from  more  than 
one  source.  His  father  NiorSr,  who  is  sometimes  associated  with 
him,  possesses  much  the  same  characteristics,  though  he  appears 
to  be  more  particularly  connected  with  the  sea.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  however  that  both  he  and  his  son  have  inherited 
the  attributes  of  an  ancient  earth-goddess.     Although  there  has 

1  Frey's  connection  with  Sweden  appears  in  Saxo's  History  (frequently)  as  well  as 
in  sagas,  but  not  in  the  Edda. 

2  The  full  form,  Yngvifreyr  or  Ingunarfreyr,  is  clearly  connected  with  Ingwina 
frea,  a  title  borne  by  the  king  of  the  Danes  in  Beowulf;  cf.  p.  367  and  note. 


400  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

been  a  change  of  sex,  NiorSr's  name  is  identical  with  that  of 
Nerthus  {id  est  Terra  Mater),  a  deity  who  according  to  Tacitus, 
Germ.  40,  was  worshipped  on  '  an  island  in  the  ocean ' — in  all 
probability  Sjaelland.  NiorSr  also  has  a  daughter  called  Freyia 
(i.e.  uvaaa-a,  AecrTroiva),  who  is  represented  as  a  female  counter- 
part of  Frey.  It  is  worth  noting  that  she  is  sometimes  associated 
with  the  next  world.  According  to  Grimnismdl,  str.  14,  she 
shares  the  slain  equally  with  Othin. 

The  deities  with  which  we  have  just  been  dealing  were 
collectively  known  as  Vanir.  They  were  held  to  be  of  a  quite 
different  stock  from  the  Aesir,  to  whom  Othin  and  Thor 
belonged,  and  according  to  the  mythology  had  been  given 
to  the  latter  as  hostages.  Of  the  other  deities  those  who  figure 
most  prominently  in  mythical  stories  are  Frigg  (Othin's  wife), 
Ullr,  Hoenir,  Tyr,  Heimdallr,  It5un,  Gefion  and  Balder  ;  but  we 
seldom  hear  of  worship  paid  to  any  of  these. 

In  the  Edda  all  the  gods  together  form  a  regularly  organised 
community.  Their  home  is  called  AsgartSr,  and  they  hold  their 
meetings  beside  the  '  world-tree,'  Yggdrasill's  Ash.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  AsgarSr  is  a  totally  different  conception  from 
Valhalla^;  it  is  not  an  abode  of  the  .slain.  Indeed  in  this 
connection  Othin  himself  does  not  appear  to  be  represented  as 
a  god  of  the  dead.  But  apart  from  AsgarSr  each  god  has  a 
special  abode  of  his  own — Thor  at  ThruSheimr,  Ullr  at  Ydalir, 
NiorSr  at  Noatun,  Balder  at  Breit5ablik,  etc.  All  these  localities 
are  mythical — or  at  all  events  incapable  of  identification.  It  is 
a  striking  characteristic  of  Northern  mythology  that  the  gods 
are  not  associated  with  any  known  localities.  Practically  the  only 
exceptions  are  Frey  and  Gefion,  who  are  connected  by  tradition 
with  Upsala  and  Sjaelland  respectively ;  and  neither  of  these 
connections  is  preserved  in  the  poems  of  the  Edda.  In  order  to 
understand  this  feature  we  must  of  course  bear  in  mind  the  fact 
that  our  mythological  records  are  almost  entirely  derived  from 
Iceland,  which  lies  far  away  from  the  old  national  sanctuaries. 

'  The  two  conceptions  are  sometimes  confused,  e.g.  in  Voluspa,  str.  34.  But  the 
eschatological  conception  involved  by  the  story  of  Balder  is  that  of  the  'house  of  Hel '; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  conception  itself  is  ancient,  although  the  descrip- 
tion of  Hel  in  Gylf.  34  is  probably  quite  late. 


XVIIl]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  4OI 

It  is  probably  due  to  the  same  cause  that  we  hear  but  little 
of  special  cults.  In  Iceland  the  only  noteworthy  exception  is 
that,  beside  the  more  usually  prevailing  cult  of  Thor,  we  find  a 
number  of  persons  who  are  devoted  to  the  service  of  Frey. 
Certain  chiefs  bear  the  title  Freysgd^i  ('  priest  of  Frey ')  ;  in  one 
case  a  whole  family  bore  the  surname  Freysgy^lingar.  Temples 
apparently  sometimes  contained  the  figures  of  a  number  of  gods, 
though  Thor's  or  Frey's  is  usually  the  only  one  mentioned  by 
name.  In  Norway  however  the  case  is  somewhat  different.  We 
hear  frequently  of  temples  and  statues  of  Thor,  occasionally 
also  of  those  of  Frey.  But  in  addition  to  these  there  are  notices 
of  sanctuaries  belonging  to  other  deities — though  not  to  Othin. 
In  FriS]?i6fs  Saga,  cap.  i  (and  passim),  mention  is  made  of  a 
temple  and  image  of  Balder  in  the  "district  of  Sogn.  It  is  the 
fashion  to  treat  this  incident  as  a  product  of  antiquarian  specula- 
tion ;  but  there  is  little  in  the  story  itself  to  justify  such  a  view, 
and  the  fact  that  the  worship  of  Balder  is  not  found  elsewhere 
proves  nothing.  More  important  however  is  the  fact  that  in  a 
number  of  records  we  hear  of  statues  and  temples  of  ThorgerSr 
HolgabruSr,  with  whom  her  sister  Irpa  is  sometimes  associated. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  under  the  rule  of  Earl  Haakon  of 
Lade  the  cult  of  ThorgerSr  was  more  prominent  than  that  of 
any  other  deity,  at  least  in  the  district  of  Trondhjem.  This  fact 
is  the  more  remarkable  because  ThorgerSr  and  Irpa  are  never 
associated  in  any  way  with  the  rest  of  the  gods ;  in  the  poems 
of  the  Edda  and  even  in  Gylfaginning  their  existence  is  ignored. 

A  very  interesting  illustration  of  the  practice  of  special  cults 
occurs  in  Nials  Saga,  cap.  88,  which  describes  a  temple  owned 
in  common  by  Earl  Haakon  and  GutJbrandr,  a  powerful  hersir 
(hereditary  local  chief)  in  the  highlands.  This  temple  contained 
figures  of  ThorgerSr  and  Irpa  and  also  of  Thor  in  his  car^  We 
know  from  other  sources  that  the  cult  of  Thor  was  hereditary  in 

*  The  text  does  not  say  (as  is  stated  in  several  works  on  Northern  mythology)  that 
Thor  occupied  the  central  position,  but  merely  that  he  was  robbed  after  ThorgerSr 
and  before  Irpa.  This  is  the  only  mention,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  of  a  cult  figure  of 
Thor  in  his  car — a  feature  which  occurs  in  Hymiskvi'Sa  and  Gylfaginning  and  may 
possibly  have  some  ethnological  significance.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  in  the 
tract  Fra  Fornioti  (in  Hrafn's  Fornaldar  Sogur,  11  p.  6f.)  the  ancestry  of  GutSbrandr 
is  traced  to  the  giant  Thrymr,  Thor's  antagonist. 

26 


f 


402  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

the  family  of  GuSbrandr.  Indeed  it  appears  to  be  generally 
true  that  families  adhered  to  the  same  cult  from  generation 
to  generation \  though  in  one  case  we  do  hear  of  an  Icelander 
bearing  the  title  FreysgoSi,  who  belonged  to  a  family  dis- 
tinguished for  its  service  to  Thor. 

The  relations  between  the  worshipper  and  his  deity  were 
of  a  personal  and  intimate  character ;  he  regarded  the  latter 
as  friend,  counsellor  and  protector.  Where  the  two  are  of 
different  sexes  the  relationship  is  apt  to  take  a  conjugal  form. 
Thus  in  the  Flateyiarb6k,  I  p.  107  f,  Olafr  Tryggvason,  after 
robbing  one  of  Earl  Haakon's  temples,  and  carrying  off  the 
image,  calls  out  in  derision  :  "  Who  wants  to  buy  a  wife  ? 
I  think  Thorkell  and  I  are  now  responsible  for  this  woman, 
since  she  has  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  her  husband  who 
was  exceedingly  dear  to  her."  One  of  the  bystanders  then 
addresses  the  image  :  "  How  is  it,  ThorgerSr,  that  thou  art  now 
so  humiliated  and  stripped  in  unseemly  wise  of  the  splendid 
apparel  wherewith  Earl  Haakon  had  thee  clothed  when  he 
loved  thee } "  So  in  the  poem  HyndlulioS  Freyia  speaks  of 
her  devoted  worshipper,  Ottarr  the  son  of  Innsteinn,  as  her 
husband.  We  may  compare  with  this  the  fact  that  in  the 
Flateyiarbok,  I  337  f,  the  priestess  in  charge  of  Frey's  temple 
in  Sweden  is  said  to  have  been  called  his  wife.  I  see  no  reason 
therefore  for  supposing  that  Snorri  was  giving  rein  to  his  imagi- 
nation when  he  stated  (Yngl.  Saga,  cap.  5)  that  Gefion  was  the 
wife  of  Skioldr  who,  though  a  mythical  character  (cf.  p.  131  (.), 
was  not  a  god. 

Sometimes  again  we  meet  with  a  definitely  hostile  attitude 
towards  a  deity — generally  Othin — and  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  such  ideas  first  arose  after  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
In  Saxo's  translation  of  the  lost  Biarkamdl  the  hero  suspects 
that  Othin  is  among  the  enemy  and  expresses  his  eagerness  to 
attack  him.     If  once  he  can  catch  sight  of  him,  he  says,  the  god 

^  Cults  peculiar  to  certain  families  appear  to  have  been  common  among  the 
Lithuanians  and  kindred  peoples;  cf.  Lasicius,  De  diis  Samogitarum  (Respublica... 
Poloniae,  etc.;  Leyden,  1642,  p.  280)  :  sunt  etiam  quaedam  ueteres  nobilitim  famUiae, 
quae  peculiar es  colunt  deos,  ut  Mikutiana  Simonaitem,  Micheloviciana  Sidzium, 
Schemietiana  et  Kiesgaliana   Vends  Rekicziovum,  aliae  alios. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  403 

will  not  escape  from  Leire  unharmed ^  Such  ideas  can  only  be 
explained  by  a  vivid  anthropomorphic  conception  of  the  deities. 

The  same  attitude  appears  elsewhere.  In  Gautreks  Saga, 
cap.  7 — a  story  which  contains  many  archaic  features — we  find 
the  destiny  of  a  man  being  determined  by  Othin  and  Thor, 
the  former  of  whom  is  friendly  to  him,  the  latter  hostile.  In 
the  introduction  to  Gri'mnismal  as  the  result  of  a  disagreement 
with  Othin  Frigg  plays  a  trick  upon  him  which  leads  him  into 
serious  trouble.  Nor  is  the  married  life  of  Niort5r  and  SkaSi 
as  happy  as  might  be  wished.  But  the  chief  cause  of  discord 
among  the  gods  is  the  malicious  Loki.  In  the  poem  Lokasenna 
he  charges  most  of  the  chief  goddesses  with  unfaithfulness  or 
unchastity,  while  at  the  same  time  he  reproaches  the  gods  with 
unseemly  conduct  or  with  being  involved  in  humiliating  positions. 
The  picture  of  the  divine  community  which  the  poem  presents 
to  us  is  anything  but  pleasant.  No  doubt  Loki  is  representing 
every  circumstance  in  the  most  unfavourable  light  possible ;  but 
there  appears  to  be  a  definite  mythical  foundation  for  most  of 
his  charges. 

Loki  serves  as  a  connecting  link  between  the  gods  and  the 
iotnar  ('giants'),  a  class  of  beings  who  are  represented  as  generally 
hostile  to  both  gods  and  men.  Yet  there  are  exceptions  to  this 
rule  ;  and  some  of  the  gods,  e.g.  NiorSr  and  Frey,  have  wives 
from  the  iotnar.  Next  to  them  we  must  mention  the  dwarfs, 
who  are  distinguished  for  their  cunning  and  skill  in  metallurgy. 
Neither  of  these  classes  however  can  properly  be  regarded  as 
objects  of  worship.  Elves  were  certainly  worshipped,  but  only 
collectively,  as  far  as  we  know.  In  early  records  they  are 
scarcely  ever  spoken  of  as  individuals.  Most  probably  their 
origin  is  to  be  sought  in  animistic  conceptions,  connected  with 
the  cult  of  the  dead.     On  this  last  subject  enough  has  been  said 

^  p.  66  :  Et  nunc  ille  iibi  sit  qui  uitlgo  dicitur  Othin 

armipotens,  ttno  setnper  contentus  ocello, 
die  miki,  Ruta,  precor,  usquam  si  conspicis  ilium. 


si  potero  horrendum  Frigge  spectare  mantutn, 
quantumcunque  albo  clypeo  sit  tectus  et  altum 
Jlectat  equum,  Lethra  nequaquam  sospes  abibit. 
fas  est  belligenim  bello  prosternere  diuum. 


404  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

above ;  we  need  only  add  that  the  formal  deification  of  dead 
men  was  not  unknown^  Sacred  trees  and  groves  also  figure 
as  prominently  as  in  other  parts  of  Europe. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  the  religion  of  the  Viking 
Age,  primarily  as  we  know  of  it  in  Iceland  and  Norway.  But 
we  have  seen  that  the  actual  records  of  religion  in  Iceland  agree 
in  no  way  with  the  theology  of  the  Edda.  Nor  can  it  truly  be 
said  that  the  evidence  for  Norway  shows  a  better  case.  Here 
too  we  find  the  worship  of  Thor  and  Frey.  But  for  the  worship 
of  Othin,  NiorSr,  Freyia  and  Balder  the  evidence  is  slight  and 
generally  doubtful.  For  that  of  the  rest  of  the  gods  there  is  no 
evidence  at  all.  On  the  other  hand  we  find  that  the  deity  who 
after  Thor  figures  most  prominently  of  all  in  these  records  is  one 
who  is  entirely  unknown  to  the  theology  of  the  Edda.  The  only 
conclusion  which  it  seems  to  me  legitimate  to  draw  from  these 
facts  is  that  the  mythology  of  the  Edda  is  not  a  true  reflection 
of  Norwegian  religion,  at  all  events  as  it  existed  in  the  Viking  Age. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  various  deities  individually.  It  will 
be  convenient  to  begin  with  those  whom  we  know  to  have  been 
worshipped  in  Norway  or  Iceland.  There  is  no  question  that 
Thor  was  known  not  only  in  Sweden  and  Denmark  but  also 
in  Germany  and  England,  under  the  forms  Donar  and  Thipior 
respectively.  Apart  from  local  nomenclature  and  the  use  of  his 
name  (as  a  translation  of  dies  loins)  in  the  fifth  day  of  the 
week,  there  are  a  few  direct  references  to  worship  of  him — e.g. 
in  the  inscription  on  a  brooch  found  at  Nordendorf  in  Bavaria 
and  in  a  Low  German  renunciation  formula  for  the  use  of 
converts.  His  cult  goes  back  without  doubt  to  the  Heroic  Age 
and  probably  much  earlier,  though  he  is  apparently  not  mentioned 
by  Tacitus. 

The  cult  of  Frey  was  believed  to  have  come  from  Sweden, 
as  we  have  seen.     How  old  it  was  there  we  do  not  know ;  but 

^  Cf.  Adam  of  Bremen,  iv  26  :  colunt  et  deos  ex  hominibus  fados,  etc.  (with  refer- 
ence to  the  passage  from  the  Vita  Anscharii  quoted  on  p.  255  f.).  It  is  not  clear 
whether  Grimr  Kambann,  the  great-great-grandfather  of  Thorsteinn  Solmundarson 
who  settled  in  Iceland  (cf.  Landn^mabok,  i  14),  was  deified;  but  the  worship  paid  to 
him  is  evidently  regarded  as  something  exceptional.  Some  scholars  hold  that  Bragi, 
the  god  of  poetry,  is  no  other  than  the  poet  Bragi  Boddason. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN   THE    HEROIC   AGE  405 

there  is  some  reason  for  believing  that  it  was  not  originally- 
confined  to  that  country.  The  Slavonic  inhabitants  of  eastern 
Holstein  worshipped  a  deity  of  the  same  name^ ;  and  the  pre- 
sumption is  that  they  found  the  cult  in  existence  when  they 
occupied  that  district — not  later  than  the  seventh  century.  But 
the  name  Yngvi  has  a  much  longer  history  and  can  be  traced  in 
various  records  back  to  the  time  of  Tacitus.  From  v/hat  is  said 
of  Ing  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Runic  Poem  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
a  perfectly  definite,  though  doubtless  mythical,  personality^ 

We  have  already  noticed  that  NiorSr  can  be  traced  back  to 
a  goddess  Nerthus,  who  was  worshipped  in  the  first  century  by 
the  Angli  and  other  peoples  in  the  south-western  part  of  the 
Baltic.  When  the  change  of  sex  took  place  we  do  not  know. 
The  feminine  form  of  the  deity  is  probably  preserved  in  Freyia, 
who  under  the  name  Skialf  seems  to  have  her  roots  in  early 
Swedish  tradition. 

With  Othin  we  shall  have  to  deal  presently.  There  is 
abundant  evidence  that  he  was  known  not  only  in  Sweden  and 
Denmark  but  also  in  England  and  at  least  the  greater  part  of 
Germany.  In  the  two  latter  countries  he  bore  the  names  Woden 
and  Wodau  respectively.  Even  in  Tacitus'  time  he  appears 
(under  the  name  Mercurius)  as  the  chief  god. 

Balder's  history  is  not  so  clear.  From  Saxo's  account  (p.  70  ff.) 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he  was  known  in  Denmark.  The 
question  whether  he  was  recognised  in  Germany^  depends  practi- 
cally upon  the  interpretation  of  the  (second)  Merseburg  charm, 
to  which  we  shall  have  to  refer  again  shortly. 

Now  let  us  take  the  deities  who  are  known  to  us  only  from 
the  mythology.  Both  Frigg  and  Tyr  were  certainly  known  in 
England  and  Germany.  Their  names  are  preserved  in  the 
sixth  and  third  days  of  the  week.  Frigg  {Fred)  also  figures, 
as  the  wife  of  Wodan,  in  the  Langobardic  story  quoted  above 

1  Proue{n)  ;  cf.  Helmoldus,  Ckron.  Slavorum,  I  53,  70,  84. 

^  I  have  discussed  this  subject  (also  Nior'Sr  and  Freyia)  in  detail  in  The  Origin  of 
the  English  Nation,  chapters  ix-xi. 

*  I  do  not  think  that  Aethelweard's  substitution  of  Balder  for  Baeldaeg  (the  first 
part  of  which  is  certainly  (^a/-)  in  the  genealogy  of  King  Aethelwulf  (ni  3)  can  be  held 
to  prove  the  existence  of  the  cult  of  Balder  in  England.  The  theory  that  the  word 
baldor,  'prince,'  arose  out  of  the  god's  name  is  open  to  still  more  serious  question. 


\ 


406  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

(p.  115),  while  Tyr  (Mars)  is  mentioned  more  than  once  by- 
Tacitus. 

Of  Ullr  traces  are  preserved  in  local  nomenclature  both  in 
Denmark  and  Sweden.  From  Saxo  (p.  81  f.)  it  appears  that  he 
was  remembered  in  Danish  tradition.  Gefion's  association  with 
Sjaelland  (cf.  p.  400)  is  recorded  by  Bragi  Boddason,  the  earliest 
Scandinavian  poet  of  whom  anything  has  been  preserved.  Both 
her  name  and  that  of  IBun  can  be  traced  in  local  nomenclature 
in  the  same  islands 

There  remain  of  course  a  large  number  of  less  important 
deities  who  cannot  be  traced  outside  the  mythology  of  the  Edda. 
Many  scholars  hold  that  these  were  invented  by  Norwegian  or 
Icelandic  poets  during  the  Viking  Age  ;  but  it  is  at  least  equally 
possible  that  our  inability  to  trace  them  elsewhere  is  due  in 
part  to  the  extreme  poverty  of  our  information.  One  piece  of 
evidence  which  tells  in  favour  of  the  latter  view  is  that  the 
Merseburg  charm  preserves  the  name  of  one  of  the  least  prominent 
of  these  deities — Fulla,  the  handmaid  of  Frigg.  The  fact  too 
that  these  poets  made  no  attempt  to  incorporate  ThorgerSr  in 
the  pantheon  seems  to  show  that  in  their  time'*  the  theological 
system  of  the  Edda  was  more  or  less  crystallised.  At  all  events 
it  is  clear  that,  with  the  exception  of  ThorgerSr  and  Irpa,  all  the 
deities  whose  worship  is  attested  were  known  beyond  Norway, 
and  that  most  of  them  can  be  traced  back  to  the  Heroic  Age 
or  still  earlier  times. 

There  is  a  further  reason  for  doubting  whether  the  theology 
of  the  Edda  was  a  product  of  late  Norwegian  poetry.  Perhaps 
the  most  striking  conception  in  this  theology  is  that  of  the 
'  world-tree,'  Yggdrasill's  Ash.  I  have  pointed  out  elsewhere* 
that  this  conception  is  largely  derived  from  a  tree-sanctuary 
and  that  a  fairly  close  parallel  to  it  is  furnished  by  the  description 

'  Cf.  Olrik,  Gejion  {Danske  Studier,  1910),  p.  21  ff. 

^  There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  the  cult  of  Thorger'Sr  was  first  introduced 
by  Earl  Haakon.  In  the  Flateyiarbok,  p.  408,  it  is  stated  that  she  had  been  wor- 
shipped by  successive  rulers  of  the  land.  Her  cult  too  was  not  unknown  in  Iceland ; 
according  to  Har^ar  Saga,  cap.  19,  Grimkell,  the  son  of  a  settler  from  Orkadal  (to 
the  south  of  Trondhjem),  had  a  temple  dedicated  to  her. 

*  The  Cult  of  Othin,  p.  75  ff.  Cf.  R.  M.  Meyer,  Altgermanische  Religionsgeschichte, 
p.  474  ff. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  407 

of  the  Upsala  sanctuary  given  in  Adam  of  Bremen's  history 
(IV  26  f)  and  the  annexed  scholia.  Similar  sanctuaries  may 
have  existed  in  Norway;  but  we  have  no  record  of  one  which 
possessed  the  same  characteristics,  and  it  is  extremely  im- 
probable that  any  of  them  ever  attained  an  importance  compar- 
able with  that  possessed  by  the  Swedish  capital.  Again,  there 
are  features  in  the  picture  of  the  'world-tree' — I  would  allude 
especially  to  the  presence  of  snakes — for  which  no  parallels  can 
be  found  in  any  Scandinavian  sanctuary  of  which  we  have 
record.  Yet  such  features  do  occur  in  the  tree-sanctuaries 
of  more  primitive  peoples,  especially  among  the  Prussians  and 
Lithuanians.  From  this  it  appears  to  me  highly  probable  that 
the  conception  of  the  world-tree  dates  from  a  comparatively 
early  period.  The  idea  of  universality  which  it  embodied  cannot 
be  held  to  prove  the  contrary ;  for  this  idea  was  possessed  also 
by  the  Irminsul\  the  sacred  pillar  of  the  Old  Saxons.  We  have 
no  reason  for  doubting  that  a  philosophical  conception  such  as 
this  was  possible  before  the  Viking  Age. 

I  am  inclined  therefore  to  think  that  the  theological  system 
of  the  Edda  in  its  main  features  dates  from  times  anterior  to 
the  Viking  Age.  From  earlier  sources — the  works  of  Tacitus 
and  various  German  and  English  authorities — we  know  altogether 
the  names  of  about  a  score  of  deities,  half  of  whom  belong  to 
either  sex.  It  is  probable  however  that  a  much  larger  number 
have  been  lost.  At  all  events  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
religion  of  the  Heroic  Age  was  a  highly  developed  polytheism. 
Procopius  {Goth.  II  15),  speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of  '  Thule ' 
(Scandinavia),  says  that  they  worship  many  gods  and  demons 
(BaifjLova<i),  both  in  the  heavens  and  in  the  atmosphere,  in  the 
earth  and  in  the  sea,  besides  certain  other  spirits  (Saifiouia) 
which  are  said  to  be  in  the  waters  of  springs  and  rivers.  Again, 
in  the  preceding  chapter  he  states  that  the  Heruli  of  central 
Europe  worshipped  a  great  crowd  of  gods  (iroXvv  riva  i^o/jui^ovre^ 
6eu)v  ofiiXov),  whom  they  thought  it  right  to  appease  even  with 
human  sacrifices.  Procopius'  evidence  is  important  not  only 
because  it  is  almost  contemporary  but  also  because  he  clearly 

^  Irminsul . .  .quod  Latine   dicitur   uniuersalis   colutnna,    quasi  sustitiens    omnia, 
Mon.  Germ.,   11  676. 


408  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

distinguishes  between  the  rehgion  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  and 
that  of  the  Slavs.  Of  the  latter  he  says  {ib.  Ill  14)  that  "they 
consider  one  god,  the  creator  of  the  lightning,  to  have  sole 
control  over  all  things,  and  they  sacrifice  to  him  oxen  and 
offerings  of  all  kinds,. .  .Yet  they  also  reverence  rivers  and  nymphs 
and  some  other  spirits  {hat^iovta),  and  sacrifice  to  them  all,  using 
divination  in  these  sacrifices."  It  will  be  seen  that  this  type  of 
religion  is  not  very  far  removed  from  what  we  find  among  the 
Thor-worshippers  of  Iceland. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  (p.  255)  we  quoted  from  the  Life  of 
St  Ansgar  the  story  of  a  man  who  claimed  to  have  been  present 
at  an  assembly  of  the  gods.  From  this  story  it  is  clear  that  in 
Sweden  not  very  long  after  the  beginning  of  the  Viking  Age 
the  gods  were  believed  to  form  an  organised  community.  For 
earlier  times  no  such  explicit  information  is  to  be  found  ;  but 
we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  some  similar  belief  prevailed  during 
the  Heroic  Age.  In  the  Langobardic  story  quoted  above  (p.  1 1 5) 
Fria  (Frigg)  is  the  wife  of  Wodan,  as  in  the  Edda.  In  the 
(second)  Merseburg  charm  we  find  a  number  of  deities  taking 
part  in  an  incantation.  Of  the  goddesses  Sunna  is  said  to  be 
the  sister  of  Sinthgunt,  and  Volla  the  sister  of  Fria.  Evidence 
to  the  same  effect  is  furnished  by  a  letter  of  Bishop  Daniel  of 
Winchester  to  St  Boniface,  in  which  the  writer  speaks  of  a 
genealogy  of  the  gods  and  advises  his  correspondent  to  put 
awkward  questions  to  the  heathen  regarding  the  origin,  numbers 
and  relationships  of  their  deities \  It  may  be  noted  that  the 
earlier  Anglo-Saxon  genealogies,  which  go  back  probably  to  the 
seventh  century,  trace  Woden's  ancestry  back  for  five  generations. 

Of  course  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  some  of  the  deities  of 
whom  we  hear  may  have  been  recognised  only  locally  or  by 
certain  nations  or  confederacies.  Such  an  explanation  is  very 
likely  in  the  case  of  more  than  one  deity  mentioned  by  Tacitus, 
whom  we  cannot  identify  with  any  probability.     In  later  times 

^  Jaffe,  Bibliotheca  Rerum  Germanicarum,  III  71  ff. :  neque  enim  contrat'ia  eis  de 
ipsorum,  quamuis  falsorum,  deorum  genealogia  astruere  debes...utrum  autem  adhuc 
generare  deos  deasgue  alios  aliasque  suspicantur?  uel,  si  iam  non  generant,  quando  uel 
cur  cessauerunt  a  concubitu  et  partu ;  si  autem  adhuc  generant,  infinitus  iam  deorum 
effectus  numerus  est.  et  quis  tarn  inter  tot  tantosque  potentior  sit,  incertum  mortalibus 
est;  et  ualde  cauendum,  ne  in  potentiorem  quis  offendat. 


XVIIl]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  4O9 

the  same  may  be  true  of  the  god  FositeS  to  whom  an  island  in 
the  North  Sea — identified  with  HeHgoland  by  Adam  of  Bremen 
— was  wholly  dedicated.  It  is  quite  possible  too  that  the  god 
Seaxneat  {Saxnote),  who  is  mentioned  in  the  Renunciation 
Formula  and  from  whom  the  kings  of  Essex  claimed  descent, 
was  worshipped  only  by  the  Saxons. 

But  even  if  such  evidence  was  a  good  deal  stronger  than  it 
actually  is  we  should  not  be  justified  in  inferring  from  it  that 
the  religion  of  the  Heroic  Age  was  of  an  essentially  national 
rather  than  universal  character.  It  is  not  only  in  Northern 
records  of  the  Viking  Age  or  the  Christian  period  that  we  hear 
of  families  which  were  supposed  to  be  descended  from  Othin 
{Woden).  Out  of  the  eight  royal  genealogies  of  the  English 
kingdoms  which  have  come  down  to  us  seven  are  traced  back 
to  the  same  deity ;  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  most  of  these 
date  from  before  the  conversion^ — i.e.  from  within  a  century  of 
the  Heroic  Age.  But  Woden  was  not  a  national  but  a  uni- 
versal deity. 

Moreover  what  little  we  do  know  of  this  god  from  English 
and  German  sources  is  in  full  conformity  with  the  character 
which  he  bears  in  Northern  records.  In  the  Anglo-Saxon  poem 
on  the  Nine  Herbs  he  is  skilled  in  magic ;  in  the  Merseburg 
poem  he  is  an  expert  in  incantations.  In  the  Langobardic 
story  we  find  him  represented  as  the  giver  of  victory.  In 
Tacitus'  time  he  was  already  worshipped  above  the  other  gods  ; 
and  human  victims  were  offered  to  him.  The  same  author 
{Ami.  XIII  57)  records  the  custom  of  dedicating  a  hostile  army 
to  Mars  and  Mercurius — a  vow  which  entailed  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  everything  belonging  to  the  enemy.  The  great  deposits 
of  antiquities  which  have  been  found  at  Thorsbjaerg,  Nydam,  Vi 
and    elsewhere   are   commonly   believed    to    be    relics   of  such 

1  This  explanation  would  not  hold  of  course  if  Fosite  is  to  be  identified  with  Forset^ 
the  son  of  Balder.     But  the  identification  seems  to  me  extremely  problematical. 

^  Cf.  Bede,  H.  E.,  I  15:  Voden,  de  cuius  stirpe  multarum  prouinciarutn  regium 
genus  originem  duxit.  From  these  genealogies  and  Bp  Daniel's  letter  (quoted  above) 
it  would  seem  that  such  compositions  (including  theogonies)  were  much  in  vogue 
among  the  heathen  Teutonic  peoples  in  the  period  immediately  following  the  Heroic 
Age.  It  is  to  the  same  period  that  I  would  ascribe  the  development  of  the  theology 
of  the  Edda,  though  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  the  poems  which  have  come  down 
to  us  were  composed  then. 


4IO  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

dedicatory  spoils.  Finally,  later  popular  belief  often  placed 
Woden  at  the  head  of  the  Wild  Hunt  or  ghostly  army.  For  the 
existence  of  a  conception  corresponding  to  Valhalla  we  have 
no  explicit  evidence'.  But  such  a  doctrine  would  clearly  be 
in   full  accord  with  all  that  we  know  of  the  cult. 

In  funeral  rites  both  inhumation  and  cremation  were  practised. 
The  latter  custom  however  seems  to  have  died  out  almost  every- 
where before  the  introduction  of  Christianity — in  England  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  among  the  Franks  and  Ala- 
manni  much  earlier.  Only  among  the  Old  Saxons  it  lingered 
apparently  until  towards  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  when 
it  was  rigorously  put  down  after  their  subjugation  I  How  far 
the  two  practices  were  associated  with  different  conceptions 
of  immortality,  as  in  the  North,  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  In 
Beowulf  (cf  p.  54)  cremation  is  regarded  as  a  pious  duty 
owed  to  the  dead  ;  but  all  heathen  references  to  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  hereafter  have  been  removed  from  the  poem.  On 
the  other  hand  there  is  evidence  from  later  times  for  offerings  at 
the  grave,  necromancy  and  all  other  practices  usually  associated 
with  the  cult  of  the  dead''. 

1  There  is  an  unfortunate  ambiguity  about  the  history  of  the  word  Ass.  In  Old 
Norse  it  is  applied  both  to  Thor  and  Othin,  as  well  as  other  gods,  while  Aesi'r  (pi.) 
denotes  the  gods  collectively  and  Asgaf^r  their  home  (quite  distinct  from  Valhalla). 
In  Gothic  however  the  same  word  (pi.  ansis)  seems  to  have  meant  a  dead  hero 
(cf.  p.  172,  note).  If  this  was  its  original  meaning — a  view  somewhat  favoured  by 
Skr.  asu,  Av.  anku,  '  spirit,' — we  must  conclude  that  the  terms  Asgar^r  and  Aesir 
(also  Ass,  as  applied  to  Thor)  have  undergone  a  complete  change  of  meaning  in  Old 
Norse.  Such  a  change  could  be  explained  satisfactorily  by  the  (poetic)  inclusion  of 
deol  ovpavioi  and  dtoi  viprepoi  in  one  pantheon ;  but  in  that  case  the  doctrine  of 
Valhalla,  or  something  very  much  like  it,  must  be  of  great  antiquity.  This  explana- 
tion is  perhaps  favoured  by  the  popular  use  of  Aasgaardsreia  for  the  Wild  Hunt  in 
Norway. 

^  Cap.  quae  de  partibus  Saxoniae  constituta  sunt,  No.  vn  (Mon.  Germ.,  Leg.  I 
49).  Whether  the  practice  was  common  I  do  not  know.  References  to  the  cult  of 
manes  occur  in  the  same  Capitula,  as  well  as  in  the  Indiculus  Superstitionum,  etc. 

•*  Cremation  is  sometimes  accompanied  by  a  cult  of  the  dead,  e.g.  among  the 
heathen  Prussians;  cf.  Matthias  a  Michov  (Grynaeus,  Novus  Orbis,  etc.,  Basel  1537, 
p.  520) :  Habebant  praeterea  in  syluis  praefaiis  focos,  infamilias  et  domos  distinctos,  in 
quibus  omnibus  charorutn  et  famiiiarium  cadauera  cum  equis,  sellis  et  uestimentis 
potioribus  incendebant.  locabant  etiam  ad  focos  huiusmodi  ex  subere  facta  sedilia,  tn 
quibus  escas  ex  pasta  in  casei  modutn  praeparatas  depofiebant,  medonemque  focis 
infundebant,    ea   credulitate  illusi   quod  mortuorum    suorum    animae  quorum    tllic 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  4 II 

The  most  important  piece  of  evidence  however  on  this  subject 
is  furnished  by  Procopius'  account  of  the  Heruli  {Goth.  II  14). 
He  states  that  with  them  it  was  not  lawful  for  a  man  to  die  of 
old  age  or  disease.  When  he  felt  himself  to  be  dying  he  had  to 
request  his  relatives  to  make  away  with  him  as  soon  as  possible. 
They  had  then  to  construct  a  huge  pyre  and  set  the  dying  man 
in  the  highest  part  of  it.  A  compatriot,  though  not  a  relative 
(cf  p.  346),  is  then  sent  up  to  stab  the  man,  and  on  his  return 
the  wood  is  immediately  kindled.  When  the  fire  is  burnt  out 
the  remains  are  collected  and  buried  forthwith,  and  the  widow 
is  required  to  strangle  herself  at  the  tomb.  Such  rites  as  this 
are  commonly  ascribed  to  the  desire  to  set  the  soul  free  while 
in  possession  of  its  faculties.  But  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in 
Northern  tradition  cremation  is  bound  up  with  the  doctrine  of 
Valhalla^ — a  doctrine  which  is  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  this 
explanation — it  is  certainly  significant  that  the  two  rites  should 
be  associated  here,  more  especially  since  the  Heruli  were  an 
essentially  military  people.  On  the  whole  the  evidence  of  this 
passage  is  distinctly  favourable  to  the  view  that  a  belief  closely 
approximating  to  the  doctrine  of  Valhalla  was  prevalent  during 
the  Heroic  Age. 

Valkyries   {walcyrgan)  are   not  unfrequently   mentioned  in 


combusta  fuerant  corpora  node  ueniretit  escaque  se  exsatiarent.  Inhumation  however 
was  also  practised  by  the  same  nation;  cf.  Erasmus  Stella  (Grynaeus,  op.  cit.,  p.  582): 
Statiiit  (sc.  Viduutus)  et  dies  natalitios  et  funera  pari  modo  celebranda,  mutuis  scilicet 
commessationibus  et  compotationibus,  turn  liisu  et  cantu,  absque  nioerore  cum  summa 
hilaritate  et  gaudio,  utque  alterius  uitae  spent  prae  se  ferrent.  illo  saltern  ostenderunt 
quod  exutos  spiritu  armatos  uestilosque  ac  magna  stipellectilis  parte  circumposita 
humarunt.  quo  more  usque  nunc  sepeliuntur,  etc.  Both  these  notices  of  course  refer 
to  a  late  period — the  fifteenth  century. 

^  Cf.  p.  397  f.  We  may  refer  also  to  the  funeral  of  Sigur'Sr  Hringr,  as  described 
in  Arngrim's  epitome  of  the  lost  Skioldunga  Saga,  cap.  26  (Aarbyiger  f.  nord. 
Oldkynd.,  1-894,  p.  132)  :  Hinc  post  acerrimam  pitgnam . .  .Siguardus  etiam  ?nalc 
uulneratus  est.  qui.,  Alfsola  funere  allato,  magnam  nauim  mortuorum  cadaueribus 
oneratam  solus  uiuorum  conscendit,  seque  et  mortuAm  Al/solam  in  puppi  collocans 
nauim  pice,  bitumine  et  sulphure  incendi  iubet:  atque  sublaiis  uelis  in  altum,  ualidis 
a  continente  impellentibus  uentis,  proram  dirigit,  simulque  tnanus  sibi  uiolentas 
intulit ;  sese  tot  facinorum  patratorem,  tantorum  regnorum  possessorem,  more  maiorum 
suorum,  regali  pompa  Odinum  regem  {id  est  inferos)  inuisere  malle  quam  inertis 
senectutis  injirmitatem  perpeti,  alacri  animo  ad  socios  in  lit  tore  antea  relictos  prae/atus, 
etc. 


412  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Anglo-Saxon  literature^  and  it  is  clear  that  similar  beings  were 
known  in  Germany,  though  this  word  does  not  occur  in  extant 
records.  In  England,  as  in  the  North,  both  human  and  super- 
natural beings  were  included  under  this  term,  though  they  are 
not  always  clearly  distinguished  from  witches.  But,  more  than 
this,  the  poetic  description  of  valkyries  which  we  find  in  the 
Edda^  can  likewise  be  traced  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  In  a 
charm  against  sudden  pains  we  hear  of  mighty  women  who 
rode  over  the  hill,  mustered  their  host  and  cast  their  spears. 
The  idea  that  sudden  pains  were  due  to  the  agency  of  such 
beings^  comes  doubtless  from  popular  belief;  but  the  description 
cannot  be  accounted  for  in  this  way.  Again,  in  the  (first) 
Merseburg  charm  we  find  supernatural  women  {idisi)  taking  part 
in  a  battle;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  word  walcyrge 
can  hardly  mean  anything  else  than  'chooser  of  the  slain.' 
Certainly  we  have  no  evidence  to  prove — or  disprove — that  the 
valkyries  were  associated  with  Woden  in  early  times.  But  the 
features  noted  here  again  point  clearly  to  the  existence  of 
a  conception  akin  to  Valhalla  and,  what  is  more,  to  the  poetic 
treatment  of  such  a  conception. 

In  the  course  of  this  discussion^  I  have  endeavoured  to  point 
out  that  the  theological  system  of  the  Edda  cannot  properly  be 
regarded  as  an  invention  of  (Norwegian-Icelandic)  poets  of  the 
Viking  Age — that,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  derived  in  great  measure 
from  much  earlier  times.  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  the  growth 
of  the  system  has  been  very  largely  influenced  by  poetry.  But 
the  evidence  seems  to  me  to  show  that  the  poetic  treatment  of 
the  subject  had  begun — and  probably  more  than  begun — in  the 

^  In  the  glossaries  the  word  is  used  to  translate  Eurynis,  Herinis  (i.e.  Erinys), 
Tisifotie,  A/.lecto,  Bellona.  The  first  three  cases  occur  in  the  Corpus  glossary ;  hence 
the  suggestion  that  the  word  walcyrge  is  borrowed  from  Norse  is  inadmissible. 

^  From  the  inscription  of  Rok  it  appears  probable  that  the  conception  of  Valkyries 
found  in  the  Edda  was  familiar  in  the  south-east  of  Sweden  before  the  end  of  the 
ninth  century.  This  is  by  no  means  the  only  point  in  which  the  same  inscription 
bears  witness  to  a  highly  developed  interest  in  antiquarian  lore. 

^  An  interesting  analogy  is  furnished  by  the  Servian  belief  that  sunstroke  is  due  to 
arrows  shot  by  Vile  (cf.  p.  317,  note;  and  Krauss,  Slav.  Volkforschungen,  p.  372  ff.). 

*  I  have  not  attempted  to  give  a  complete  list  of  the  mythical  beings  mentioned  in 
the  records.  In  general  we  find  the  same  classes  of  such  beings  as  in  the  North  — 
elves,  dwarfs,  giants  (Ang-Sax.  eoten,  i>yrs),  etc. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  413 

Heroic  Age  and  among  many  of  the  Teutonic  peoples.  It  is 
perfectly  true  that  the  notices  of  Teutonic  religion  contained 
in  Tacitus'  works  convey  the  impression  that  religion  was  re- 
garded as  a  very  serious  matter  and  that  the  general  attitude 
towards  the  gods  was  highly  reverential.  The  same  impression 
is  conveyed  by  Alcuin's  account  of  Fositesland ;  and  probably 
no  one  will  deny  that  the  euthanasia  of  the  Heruli  was  based 
upon  a  very  real  conception  of  immortality.  But  to  compare 
such  records  with  the  poetry  of  the  Edda  would  manifestly  be 
absurd.  For  analogies  to  them  we  must  turn  to  notices  relating 
to  actual  religion,  and  here  we  shall  find  evidence  that  the 
people  of  the  Viking  Age  were  no  less  religious  than  those 
of  earlier  times.  We  may  instance  the  reverence  shown  by 
Th6rolfr  of  Mostr  to  his  holy  hill  and  Earl  Haakon's  devotion 
to  ThorgerSr  HolgabriiSr. 

On  the  other  hand  the  attitude  towards  the  gods  shown  in 
the  Edda  finds  an  exact  analogy  in  the  only  record  of  '  theo- 
logical' poetry  which  has  survived  from  the  Heroic  Age.  In 
the  Langobardic  story  (cf  p.  115)  the  anthropomorphisation 
of  the  deities  is  already  complete  ;  and  the  chief  god^  is  duped 
by  his  wife.  We  could  scarcely  wish  for  a  better  parallel  to 
the  account  given  in  the  introduction  to  Grimnismdl.  In  view 
of  this  story  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt  that  familiarity,  not 
to  say  levity,  in  the  treatment  of  the  gods  characterised  the 
poetry  of  the  Heroic  Age,  just  as  much  as  that  of  the  Viking  Age. 

It  would  be  well  to  hesitate  however  before  assuming  that 
the  gods  of  Tacitus'  time  were  treated  in  the  same  way.  His 
account  shows  that  Teutonic  theology  had  then  passed  beyond 
the  purely  tribal  stage,  and  that  certain  deities  were  worshipped 
by  a  number  of  peoples,  if  not  universally.  But  it  does  not 
suggest  the  existence  of  a  highly  anthropomorphic  conception 
of  the  gods.  Further  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  that  Tacitus 
is  separated  only  by  a  century  and  a  half  from  Caesar.  The 
account  of  German  religion  given  by  the  latter  {B.  Gall.  VI  21) 
is  difficult  to  account  for  by  any  explanation.  But  unless  we 
are  to  believe  that  Caesar  was  thoroughly  imposed  upon  we 

^  It  will  be  observed  that  here  (as  commonly  in  the  Edda)  Wodan's  character  as 
god  of  the  dead  (slain)  is  entirely  lost  sight  of. 


414  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

must  conclude  that  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  developed  poly- 
theism can  have  existed  in  his  day.  To  the  theology  of  the 
Heroic  Age  his  account  of  the  Gaulish  gods  {ib.  VI  17)  would 
be  far  more  applicable  than  what  he  says  regarding  the  worship 
of  the  Germans. 

The  question  we  have  been  discussing  appears  to  throw 
some  light  upon  the  rapidity  with  which  most  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  accepted  Christianity.  The  facts  which  we  know  with 
regard  to  the  conversion  are  as  follows:  (i)  that  it  almost 
invariably  began  in  the  king's  court ;  (2)  that  violent  opposition 
was  offered  only  in  kingless  communities,  as  among  the  Old 
Saxons,  or  in  defiance  of  the  king's  authority,  as  in  Norway; 
(3)  that  after  the  conversion  the  gods  (in  general)  disappear  at 
once  and  for  good  ;  (4)  that  magical  practices  and  the  belief  in 
spirits  and  even  in  certain  female  agricultural  deities  ('  Erce,' 
Holda,  Berhta,  etc.)  lasted  among  the  country  people  for  many 
centuries.  From  (4)  we  may  probably  infer  that  the  religion 
of  the  country  people  was  chiefly  animistic — similar  no  doubt 
to  what  we  find  in  Iceland,  with  the  exception  that  we  have 
little  evidence  for  the  cult  of  the  thunder-god.  Again,  the 
explanation  of  (3)  hangs  together  with  (i);  for  the  statements 
of  ecclesiastical  writers  render  it  clear  that  the  religion  of  the 
courts  was  essentially  theistic.  But  it  is  plain  from  the  dis- 
cussion in  the  Northumbrian  council  recorded  by  Bede  (^H.  E. 
II  13) — the  only  discussion  of  this  kind  of  which  we  have  any 
detailed  account — that  here  at  least  this  religion  retained  little 
vital  forced  This  fact  is  fully  explained  if,  as  I  have  endeavoured 
to  point  out,  theology  had  largely  passed  from  the  realm  of 
dogma  into  that  of  poetry. 

The  conclusion  then  to  which  we  are  brought  is  that  Teutonic 
religion,  at  all  events  in  the  courts,  underwent  a  profound  change 
in  the  course  of  the  Heroic  Age.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  in 
the  earlier  part  of  that  age — as  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Viking 
Age — we  find,  especially  among   the   more  northern    peoples, 

^  We  may  note  especially  the  two  speeches  of  Coifi,  the  chief  priest :  Nihil 
omnino  uirtutis  habet,  nihil  utilitalis  religio  ilia  quam  hucusque  tenuimus — lam  olim 
inlellexeram  nihil  esse  quod  colebamus ;  quia  uidelicet  quanta  studiosius  in  eo  cultu 
quaerebam,  tanto  minus  inueniebam. 


XVIIl]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  415 

a  fanatical  devotion  to  warfare  for  its  own  sake,  accompanied 
by  lust  for  destruction  and  apparently  also  by  a  vivid  conception 
of  a  life  hereafter.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  Heroic  Age  these 
phenomena  disappear,  except  among  the  Heruli  who,  according 
to  Procopius,  differed  from  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  ideal 
which  the  princes  of  the  later  period  set  before  themselves  may 
be  gathered  both  from  Beowulf  and  from  Roman  authorities  ; 
it  was  to  enjoy  wealth  and  splendour  in  this  life  and  to 
have  their  fame  celebrated  by  future  generations.  For  their 
attitude  towards  a  future  life  the  speech  of  the  Northumbrian 
councillor  recorded  by  Bede  {I.e.)  may  probably  be  regarded 
as  typical'. 

In  a  work  such  as  this  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  give  even 
a  brief  summary  of  the  characteristics  of  Greek  religion,  since 
the  main  outlines  of  the  subject  are  probably  much  more  familiar 
than  those  of  even  the  later  religion  of  the  North.  At  the  same 
time  the  amount  of  information  which  has  been  preserved  is  so 
great  and  the  unsolved  problems  presented  by  the  subject  so 
numerous  that  it  is  clearly  better  left  in  the  hands  of  experts, 
I  shall  attempt  no  more  therefore  than  to  call  attention  to  the 
salient  points  in  which  the  religion  of  the  Homeric  poems  differs 
from  that  of  later  times  and  to  the  chief  characteristics  in  which 
the  former  resembles  or  differs  from  the  religion  of  the  Teutonic 
Heroic  Age  and  the  Viking  Age. 

The  various  objects  of  worship  recognised  in  Greece  belong 
in  general  to  much  the  same  categories  as  those  which  we  have 
noticed  above.  They  may  be  classified  roughly  as  gods,  genii 
locorum  and  manes.  In  the  last  class  we  may  perhaps  include 
the  '  heroes,'  though  the  position  occupied  by  them  is  somewhat 
peculiar.  They  were  for  the  most  part  characters  of  the  Heroic 
Age,  and  sometimes  we  find  the  cult  of  the  same  hero  recognised 
in  a  number  of  different  states.  In  general  the  worship  of  the 
gods  took  a  different  form  from  that  paid  to  the  manes  and 
heroes,  though  occasionally  the  cult  of  a  deity  seems  to  have 
been  associated  with,  or  superimposed  upon,  that  of  a  hero. 

^  J.ta   haec   uita  hominum    ad  modicum   apparet;    quid  auteni  sequatur,   quidue 
praecesserit,  prorsus  ignoramus. 


4l6  RELIGION    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

In  the  Homeric  poems  the  gods  figure  much  more  prominently 
than  the  other  classes.  The  most  frequently  mentioned  of  them 
are  Zeus,  Hera,  Poseidon,  Athene,  Apollo,  Artemis,  Hephaistos, 
Aphrodite,  Ares  and  Hermes.  Zeus,  as  head  of  the  divine  com- 
munity, corresponds  to  Othin  (Woden);  but  in  other  respects 
there  is  little  resemblance  between  the  two.  As  god  of  the 
thunder  his  affinities  are  rather  with  Thor.  Hera,  as  wife  of 
the  chief  god,  may  be  compared  with  Frigg,  while  Poseidon, 
as  god  of  the  sea,  has  an  element  in  common  with  NiorSr;  but 
he  is  also  an  earthquake  god,  which  the  latter  is  not.  His 
characterisation  also  is  much  more  clearly  marked,  Apollo 
and  Artemis,  as  a  pair  of  young  deities,  brother  and  sister,  with 
certain  characteristics  in  common,  bear  some  resemblance  to 
Frey  and  Freyia ;  but  the  sexual  element,  so  prominent  in  the 
Northern  deities,  is  wanting  in  the  Homeric  poems.  On  the 
whole  the  translator  of  the  Icelandic  New  Testament  seems  to 
have  been  happily  inspired  in  rendering  Diana  (Artemis)  by 
Gefion},  while  Freyia's  true  counterpart  is  rather  to  be  found 
in  Aphroditel  Hephaistos,  the  smith  of  the  divine  community, 
has  no  Northern  god  corresponding  to  him ;  as  the  maker  of 
heroes'  armour  and  other  metal  objects  he  plays  the  same  part 
as  Weland.  Ares,  as  god  of  war,  has  an  element  in  common 
with  Tyr.  The  Homeric  Hermes  bears  no  resemblance  to 
Othin  ;  his  duties  are  to  a  certain  extent  discharged  by  the 
Valkyries  in  Northern  mythology.  Athene  is  a  character  totally 
foreign  to  Northern  theology. 

All  the  above  deities,  together  with  a  number  of  others  less 
important,  form  a  regularly  organised  community,  like  the  Aesir. 
Their  home  is  located  on  Mount  Olympos  in  the  north  of 
Thessaly — a  conception  probably  more  primitive  than  AsgarSr, 
Svhich  is  never  represented  as  a  place  known  to  the  human 
race.  But,  though  Olympos  is  the  home  of  the  gods  collectively, 
most  of  them  (like  the  Northern  deities)  have  also  one  or  more 

1  Artemis  in  the  Homeric  poems  seems  to  be  chiefly  a  women's  deity  (cf.  Od.  xx 
59  ff.).  The  same  may  have  been  the  case  with  Gefion;  cf.  Gylfaginning,  cap.  35: 
"She  is  a  maiden,  and  those  who  die  in  maidenhood  serve  her." 

2  In  origin  however  Freyia,  the  daughter  of  Nior'Sr  (Nerthus),  corresponds  probably 
rather  to  Persephone,  the  daughter  of  Demeter ;  cf.  p.  400. 


XVIIl]  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  417 

dwelling-places  of  their  own,  often  in  distant  localities.  Thus 
Poseidon's  home  is  at  Aigai  and  Apollo's  at  Delphoi,  though 
he  is  also  connected  with  several  localities  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Aegean — Chryse,  Cille,  Tenedos,  etc.  Athene  has  a  home 
at  Athens,  while  Hephaistos  is  connected  with  Lemnos,  Ares 
with  Thrace  and  Aphrodite  with  Paphos  in  Cyprus.  Zeus 
himself,  apart  from  Olympos,  has  abodes  at  Dodona  and  Ida. 

The  belief  that  the  gods  had  homes  of  their  own  in  various 
localities  is  clearly  to  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
they  are  said  to  have  sanctuaries  in  the  same  places.  Thus 
Aigai  is  mentioned,  together  with  Helice,  as  a  place  where 
sacrifices  were  offered  to  Poseidon  (II.  VIII  203  f ).  Zeus'  home 
at  Dodona  is  his  sanctuary  {ib.,  xvi  233  ff.),  and  it  is  to  her 
sanctuary  at  Paphos  that  Aphrodite  goes  (Od.  VIII  362  f ).  We 
need  not  doubt  therefore  that,  as  in  later  times,  the  cults  of  the 
various  deities  were  largely  of  a  local  character.  It  is  a  different 
question  of  course  whether  the  cults — or  rather  the  deities  them- 
selves— were  of  local  or  tribal  origin  ;  but  in  certain  cases  such 
an  explanation  appears  to  be  by  no  means  improbable.  Many 
scholars  believe  that  Ares  was  originally  a  Thracian  deity;  and 
the  fact  that  he  is  represented  as  the  father  of  Boeotian  heroes 
can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  conclusive  evidence  to  the  contrary. 
In  II.  IV  5 1  f.  Hera  states  that  three  cities,  Argos,  Mycenae  and 
Sparta,  are  specially  dear  to  her;  and  there  is  little  evidence 
that  her  cult  was  ever  prominent  in  any  other  part  of  the  Greek 
mainland.  If  the  same  explanation  is  true  of  such  deities  as 
Apollo  and  Aphrodite  we  must  suppose  either  that  their  cults 
have  spread  from  one  locality  to  another  or  that  deities  belonging 
to  different  localities  have  been  identified.  The  local  origin  of 
river  gods,  such  as  Spercheios  and  Scamandros,  is  of  course 
clear  enough ;  but  these  are  little  more  than  genii  locorum. 

But  the  really  important  feature  in  Homeric  theology  is  that 
the  various  deities,  whether  of  local  origin  or  not,  are  all  brought 
together  as  members  of  one  community,  or  rather  family,  and 
that  as  such  they  are  represented  as  meeting  with  universal 
recognition.  Indeed,  they  are  not  regarded  even  as  peculiar 
to  the  Greek  race ;  the  Trojans  recognise  the  same  divinities, 
and  Poseidon  goes  to  receive  sacrifices  even  from  the  Ethiopians. 

27 


41 8  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

A  similar,  though  less  important,  community  is  that  of  the 
marine  deities,  one  of  whom,  Thetis,  figures  prominently  in 
the  Iliad. 

The  spirit  in  which  the  gods  are  treated  is  in  general  very 
similar  to  what  we  find  in  the  Edda,  and  in  no  way  more 
reverential.  Sometimes  the  treatment  is  humorous,  as  in 
Thrymskvi-ga ;  sometimes  again  the  deities  are  represented 
in  a  very  unfavourable  light.  For  the  trick  played  upon 
Wodan  by  Fria  in  the  Langobardic  story  (cf  p.  115)  we  have 
an  interesting  parallel  in  II.  XIV  292 — 353,  where  Hera  distracts 
Zeus'  attention  from  the  war  and  coaxes  him  to  sleep.  But 
this  is  only  one  of  a  number  of  incidents  which  give  a  generally 
unpleasant  picture  of  the  domestic  life  of  this  pair,  much  more 
so  than  is  the  case  with  Othin  and  Frigg  in  the  Edda.  Again, 
the  story  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite,  which  forms  the  subject  of 
Demodocos'  lay  (Od.  VIII  266 — 366),  is  very  much  what  we 
should  expect  to  find  in  a  poem  dealing  at  length  with  the 
scandalous  charges  brought  against  the  goddesses  in  Lokasenna. 
Ares'  speech  in  v.  292  ff. — as  also  Hermes'  remarks  in  v.  339  ff. — 
may  be  compared  with  those  of  Frey  in  Skirnismal.  In  the  Iliad 
the  same  two  deities  are  more  than  once  treated  contemptuously. 

The  same  spirit  is  shown  in  the  treatment  of  the  relations  of 
gods  with  men.  It  is  frequently  recognised  that  deities  ought 
to  show  gratitude  to  their  worshippers  for  the  sacrifices  offered 
to  them,  as  Freyia  does  in  Hyndluli6S,  though  at  the  same  time 
they  are  at  liberty  to  refuse  a  petition,  as  in  II.  VI  311 — a  case 
which  may  be  compared  with  Frey's  conduct  in  Viga-Glums  Saga 
(cf.  p.  253).  In  the  Iliad  we  find  several  deities  taking  an  active 
interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  war — Poseidon,  Hera  and  Athene 
on  the  side  of  the  Achaeans,  and  Apollo,  Ares  and  Aphrodite 
pn  that  of  the  Trojans.  Poseidon  more  than  once  comes  to 
rouse  the  Achaeans,  when  he  thinks  they  are  becoming  slack. 
Apollo  and  Athene  interfere  in  the  struggle  in  a  manner  which 
strikes  the  reader  as  unfair ;  indeed  the  latter  is  frequently 
guilty  of  flagrantly  mean  and  dishonourable  conduct  towards 
her  opponents.  The  attitude  of  the  heroes  themselves  to  the 
gods  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  way  in  which  the  latter 
treat  them,     Achilles  openly  abuses  Apollo  for  deceiving  him 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  419 

(II.  XXII  1 5  ff.) ;  and  Diomedes  attacks  and  wounds  both  Ares  and 
Aphrodite,  but  only  after  assurances  or  assistance  from  Athene. 
In  this  respect  the  Homeric  princes  are  not  quite  so  bold  as  the 
hero  of  Biarkamal  (cf  p.  402  f ). 

But  it  is  by  no  means  only  towards  communities  that  the 
deities  display  their  favour  or  hatred.  Indeed  their  attitude 
towards  the  contending  forces  at  Troy  seems  to  be  largely 
determined  by  their  relations  with  certain  individuals,  especially 
Helen  and  Paris.  In  the  Odyssey  Poseidon  is  represented  as 
persecuting  Odysseus,  one  of  the  Achaean  leaders,  for  many 
years  on  account  of  the  injury  done  by  him  to  Polyphemos. 
On  the  other  hand  both  this  hero  and  Diomedes  enjoy  the 
special  favour  of  Athene.  It  is  worth  noting  that  Diomedes 
appears  to  have  inherited  this  favour  from  his  father  (cf  II.  v  800  fif.), 
and  the  same  may  be  true  in  the  case  of  Odysseus  (cf  Od.  XXIV 
367  ff,  517  ff.) ;  at  all  events  it  is  continued  towards  his  son. 
In  neither  of  these  cases  is  any  hint  given  of  conjugal  relations, 
such  as  we  find  in  the  North  ;  indeed  the  sexual  element  seems 
to  be  practically  absent  from  Athene.  Elsewhere  however  such 
relations  are  clearly  involved,  e.g.  in  the  cases  of  Aineias  and 
Achilles,  who  are  the  sons  of  Aphrodite  and  Thetis  respectively. 
In  the  Odyssey  (v  119  ff.)  the  principle  is  stated  plainly;  and 
the  hero  himself  has  conjugal  relations  with  Circe  and  Calypso, 
both  of  whom  are  described  as  goddesses. 

Of  other  mythical  beings  the  genii  locorum  are  perhaps 
the  most  prominent.  The  distinction  between  them  and  the 
class  with  which  we  have  been  dealing  is  by  no  means  so 
clearly  drawn  as  in  the  north  of  Europe  (cf  p.  407  f ).  Many 
of  them  are  even  described  as  gods  (deoi).  River  gods,  such 
as  Spercheios  and  Axios,  are  represented  as  the  fathers  or 
ancestors  of  several  heroes.  Among  other,  less  important, 
beings  of  the  same  type  we  may  mention  the  nymphs^  to 
whom  certain  caves  and  springs  were  sacred  (e.g.  Od.  XIII  347  fif, 
XVII  205  ff,  240  ff). 

References  to  chthonic  deities  are  not  very  frequent.  The 
Erinyes  are  mentioned  several  times,  especially  in  curses  ;  but 

^  Even  beings  such  as  these  are  sometimes  affiliated  to  Zeus  ;  cf.  II.  vi  420. 


420  RELIGION    IN    THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

they  are  not  individualised,  though  the  singular  is  occasionally 
used.  The  most  important  person  in  the  under-world  appears 
to  be  the  queen,  Persephoneia ;  but  she  is  never  actually 
brought  upon  the  scene.  Hades  himself  is  seldom  more  than 
a  name. 

The  sacrifices  to  the  gods  mentioned  in  the  Homeric  poems 
are  as  a  rule  similar  to  the  sacrificial  feasts  of  which  we  hear 
in  the  Norths  A  portion  of  the  victims,  usually  bulls  or  rams, 
was  offered  to  the  deity,  while  the  rest  was  consumed  by  the 
worshippers.  On  the  other  hand  we  hear  occasionally  of  victims 
which  were  given  wholly  to  the  gods.  Such  appears  to  have 
been  the  case  with  the  victims  sacrificed  on  the  occasion  of 
a  solemn  oath  ;  thus  in  II.  XIX  267  f.  the  boar  is  thrown  into 
the  sea^  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  both  here  and  in 
III  276  fif.  the  oath  refers  to  chthonic  deities',  as  well  as  to  Zeus, 
the  Sun  and  Earth.  Victims  sacrificed  to  the  dead  likewise 
seem  to  be  offered  entire  (e.g.  Od.  XI  44  ff.;  II.  xxiii  166  ff.). 
Moreover  it  is  only  in  connection  with  funeral  rites  that  we  hear 
of  human  sacrifices,  namely  when  Achilles  puts  to  death  twelve 
Trojan  youths  at  the  pyre  of  Patroclos  {ib.,  175  f.).  Horses 
and  dogs  are  also  sacrificed  on  this  occasion,  as  well  as  oxen 
and  sheep,  and  the  whole  scene  is  in  accordance  with  Northern 
custom.  No  mention  is  made  in  the  poems  of  sacrifices  such 
as  that  of  Polyxene,  which  form  so  favourite  a  theme  with  the 
dramatists  ;  but  in  view  of  the  Northern  evidence^  we  are  entitled 
to  doubt  whether  they  are  altogether  inventions  of  later  times. 

1  So  also  with  the  ceremonial  drinkings,  which  in  both  sets  of  records  form  so 
prominent  a  feature  in  the  life  of  human  and  divine  communities  alike.  Among  the 
Greeks  the  libation  corresponds  to  the  Northern  'toast'  (full)  in  honour  of  the  gods. 
A  good  example  may  be  found  in  Saga  Hakonar  Go'Sa,  cap.  i6. 

2  Reference  may  be  made  to  the  boar  which  was  sacrificed  to  Frey  (or  Freyia)  in 
Hervarar  Saga,  cap.  lo,  and  on  which  oaths  were  sworn.  It  is  not  made  clear 
however  what  was  done  with  the  body  of  the  boar. 

^  With  the  punishment  of  perjurers  by  the  Erinyes  in  II.  xix  259  f.  we  may 
compare  what  is  said  regarding  the  fate  of  such  persons  in  Volusp^,  str.  39. 

*  Reference  maybe  made  to  Procopius'  account  of  the  Heruli  (cf.  p.  411)  and 
more  especially  to  the  stories  of  Ibn  Dustah  and  Ibn  Fadhlan,  quoted  by  Thomsen, 
The  Relations  between  Ancient  Russia  and  Scandinavia,  etc.,  pp.  30  f.,  34.  Native 
records  preserve  only  somewhat  vague  traditions  relating  to  such  a  custom ;  cf.  The 
Cult  of  Otkin,  p.  4I  f. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  421 

The  theology  of  the  Homeric  poems  received  formal  recog- 
nition in  Greece  down  to  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  ;  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  system  as  a  whole  possessed  any 
vital  force  even  in  the  earliest  times  of  which  we  have  record. 
From  the  sixth  century  onwards  poets  and  philosophers  began 
to  regard  Zeus  as  much  more  than  the  chief  of  the  gods ;  but 
even  in  popular  religion  it  appears  that  each  state  honoured 
certain  deities,  while  the  rest  were  largely  or  altogether  neglected. 
Thus  at  Athens  more  prominence  seems  to  have  been  given 
to  Athene,  and  perhaps  also  to  Poseidon,  than  to  Zeus,  while 
Hera  was  predominant  at  Argos  and  Samos,  and  Apollo  at 
Delphoi,  etc.  This  is  a  feature  for  which  the  Homeric  poems 
themselves  give  evidence,  as  we  have  seen,  and  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  for  supposing  it  to  be  of  later  growth.  Sometimes  too 
we  find  prominence  given  to  deities,  such  as  Demeter  and 
Dionysos,  who  seem  to  be  of  little  consequence  in  the  Homeric 
poems,  while  other  cults,  such  as  that  of  Serapis,  were  introduced 
from  abroad  in  comparatively  late  times. 

Chthonic  deities  are  more  prominent  in  later  literature  than 
in  the  Homeric  poems  ;  and  many  authors  describe  the  worship 
paid  to  them  down  to  a  comparatively  late  period.  Yet  the 
rites  seem  to  have  been  of  a  primitive  character.  But  perhaps 
the  most  striking  element  in  the  religion  of  classical  Greece  was 
the  worship  of  '  heroes.'  Every  city  possessed  shrines  {rjputa), 
at  which  sacrifices  were  offered  to  heroes  with  rites  similar 
in  general  to  those  used  in  the  worship  of  chthonic  deities. 
Originally  these  heroes  seem  to  have  been  local  persons  and 
the  shrines  their  tombs ;  but  characters  prominent  in  heroic 
poetry  sometimes  received  worship  in  many  different  states. 

In  the  Homeric  poems  there  is  no  evidence  for  this  hero- 
worship.  Indeed  these  poems  contain  few  traces  of  a  cult  of 
the  manes  at  all,  except  in  funeral  ceremonies  and  in  connection 
with  the  necromantic  sacrifice  of  Odysseus.  This  fact  has  been 
connected  with  the  Homeric  doctrine  of  immortality^  and  in 
view  of  the  Northern  evidence  (cf  p.  397  fif )  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  true  explanation   is  to  be  found  herein.     The 

^  Cf.  especially  Ridgeway,  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  p.  512  ff. 


422  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

method  used  in  the  disposal  of  the  dead  is  cremation,  and,  as 
in  the  North,  it  was  believed  that  this  sent  the  spirit  away  from 
the  body  to  a  place  of  the  dead — not  a  separate  place  for  each 
particular  family  or  community  but  a  common  home  for  the 
souls  of  the  whole  Greek  race.  In  II.  XXIII  65  fif.  the  spirit  of 
Patroclos  comes  and  exhorts  Achilles  to  pay  him  the  last  rites  : 
"Never  again  shall  I  return  from  Hades,  when  ye  have  allotted 
me  the  due  of  fire"  (v.  75  f.).  So  also  when  Odysseus  visits  the 
home  of  Hades  the  first  spirit  he  meets  is  that  of  his  follower 
Elpenor,  who  reproaches  him  with  not  attending  to  his  obsequies 
and  begs  him,  when  he  returns  to  Circe's  island,  to  "burn  him 
up  with  his  arms,  all  that  he  possesses."  The  idea  is  clearly 
the  same  as  in  Ynglinga  Saga,  cap.  8.  The  honourable  way 
therefore  to  treat  a  fallen  foe  is  not  to  strip  him  but  to  burn 
him  with  his  armour,  as  in  II.  VI  417  ff.^  Even  at  the  beginning 
of  the  historical  period  this  belief  seems  not  to  have  entirely 
died  out.  According  to  the  story  told  by  Herodotus  (v.  92), 
when  Periandros  sent  to  consult  the  spirit  of  his  wife  Melissa, 
she  complained  that  the  clothes  which  he  had  given  her  at  her 
funeral  were  of  no  use  because  they  had  not  been  burnt. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  (p.  261)  that  this  story  seems 
to  show  that  at  one  time  the  home  of  the  dead  was  located  in 
a  definite,  though  probably  not  very  well  known,  region  ;  and 
the  vague  indications  given  as  to  the  hero's  wanderings  in  the 
Odyssey  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  evidence  to  the  contrary. 
If  this  is  correct  the  home  of  Hades  is  in  one  respect  probably 
a  more  primitive  conception  than  Valhalla,  just  as  Olympos 
is  more  primitive  than  AsgarSr.  A  reasonable  explanation 
would  be  offered  if  we  had  evidence  that  part  of  the  population 
of  Greece  was  believed  to  have  come  from  that  region  ^  An 
idea  of  this  kind  was  certainly  in  Snorri's  mind  when  he  wrote 
the  Ynglinga  Saga ;  but  unfortunately  the  account  which  he 
has  given  is  obviously,  at  least  to  a  large  extent,  of  scholastic 
origin. 

^  Reference  may  be  made  to  the  story  of  Haraldr  Hilditonn  and  Sigur^r  Hringr; 
cf.  The  Cult  of  Othin,  p.  22  f. 

^  The  existence  of  a  tradition  to  this  effect  is  perhaps  implied  by  Aristotle, 
Meteorolog.,  I  14,  21  f. ;  cf.  p.  437,  note. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  423 

In  Other  respects  however  the  Homeric  conception  of  im- 
mortaHty  appears  to  be  less  simple  than  the  doctrine  of  Valhalla, 
as  we  find  it  in  certain  Northern  records.  The  use  of  the  verbs 
dcLTrreLv  and  Tap^vcrovat  is  probably  capable  of  a  different  ex- 
planation ;  but  there  are  certain  other  words  and  expressions,  e.g. 
KarrjXdev,  evepoi,  Zei"?  Kara')(jd6vio<i  (Hades;  cf  also  II.  XX  61  ff), 
which  seem  to  point  to  a  belief  that  the  world  of  the  dead  was 
beneath  the  earth.  That  is  the  conception  implied  in  certain 
local  beliefs  which  we  meet  with  in  later  times,  at  Hermione 
and  elsewhere,  where  a  deep  cavern  or  lake  was  supposed  to 
lead  thither.  More  important  however  is  the  fact  that  the  home 
of  Hades  is  totally  devoid  of  the  attractiveness  of  Valhalla ; 
the  gloomy  picture  which  is  drawn  of  it  accords  rather  with  the 
Northern  home  of  Hel.  The  burning  of  the  body,  together 
with  armour  and  funeral  sacrifices,  appears  to  procure  little  real 
advantage  to  the  soul ;  it  is  regarded,  as  in  Beowulf,  rather  in 
the  nature  of  an  honour  due  to  the  deceased.  Yet  in  view  of  the 
parallels  which  we  possess,  both  from  the  North  and  elsewhere^, 
we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  custom  had  its  origin  in  a  much 
stronger  motive,  the  force  of  which  was  scarcely  appreciated  in 
later  times.  For  a  change  of  feeling,  if  not  of  actual  faith, 
positive  evidence  is  supplied  by  the  reprobation  expressed  in 
II.  XXIII  176 — a  passage  as  significant  in  its  way  as  the  homiletic 
verses  which  follow  the  reference  to  heathen  sacrifices  in  Beow. 
175  ff.  (cf  p.  53). 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter  we  have  noticed  a  considerable 
number  of  features  common  to  Greek  and  Teutonic  religion. 
Many  of  them  are  to  be  found  in  other  religions  also,  and  these 
we  need  not  discuss  further.     Here  we  are  concerned  only  to 

1  In  addition  to  the  examples  cited  by  Prof.  Ridgeway  we  may  refer  to  the 
account  of  the  Livonians  given  by  Bartholomaeus  Anglicus,  De  Proprietatibiis  Kerum, 
XV  88  :  mortuorum  cadauera  tumulo  non  tradehant,  sed  popidus  facto  rogo  niaximo 
usque  ad  cineres  comhirebat.  post  mortem  autetn  suos  amicos  nouis  uestibus  uestiebant 
et  eis  p>ro  uiatico  cues  et  boues  et  alia  animantia  exhibebant.  seruos  etiam  et  aftcillas 
cum  rebus  aliis  ipsis  assignantes  una  cum  mortuo  et  rebus  aliis  incendebant,  credentes 
sic  ituensos  ad  quandam  uiuorum  regionem  feliciter  pertingere  et  ibidem  cum  pecorum 
et  seruorum  sic  ob  gratiam  domini  combustorutn  miiltitudine  felicitatis  et  uitae  temporalis 
patriam  inuenire.  This  record  dates  from  the  thirteenth  century  (probably  about 
1260) ;  so  that  Northern  influence  is  not  impossible. 


424  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

determine  what  may  be  regarded  as  characteristic  of  the  Heroic 
Age.  In  this  category  we  may  probably  include  the  following 
features. 

1.  The  religion  was  predominantly  a  worship  of  gods,  rather 
than  of  spirits.  Herein  lies  the  chief  contrast  with  the  religion 
of  later  times  in  both  regions^  In  Classical  Greece  chthonic 
worship  and  hero  worship  seem  on  the  whole  to  be  more  promi- 
nent than  that  of  the  gods.  The  same  is  true  of  Scandinavian 
countries  in  the  latest  heathen  period,  though  Thor  is  still 
prominent  and  hero  worship  is  scarcely  distinguished  from 
manes  worship.  In  Germany  and  England,  where  Christianity 
was  adopted  during  the  Heroic  Age  or  soon  afterwards,  the 
gods  disappear  at  once,  while  forms  of  chthonic  worship  survive 
for  centuries. 

2.  The  same  gods  were,  to  a  large  extent  at  least,  recognised 
everywhere.  Whether  by  borrowing  or  by  identification  of  cults 
they  had  ceased  to  be  merely  tribal  deities.  How  far  back  this 
feature  goes  in  Greece  we  cannot  tell.  Among  the  Teutonic 
peoples  we  can  trace  it  in  part  back  to  Tacitus'  time  ;  but  it 
was  probably  intensified  during  the  Heroic  Age. 

3.  The  conception  of  the  gods  was  definitely  anthropo- 
morphic. For  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  this  is  made  clear 
by  the  Langobardic  story.  There  is  no  absolutely  conclusive 
proof  that  the  gods  in  general  were  regarded  as  forming  a 
regularly  organised  community,  as  in  the  Edda  and  the  Homeric 
poems  ;  but  all  the  evidence  which  we  have  (cf  p.  407  f )  points 
in  tliis  direction. 

4.  The  relations  between  gods  and  human  beings  are  of 
a  somewhat  peculiar  character  both  in  Teutonic  poetry  and  in 
the  Homeric  poems ;  but  they  are  almost  identical  in  the  two 
cases.  The  gods  are  not  treated  with  any  very  great  reverence. 
The  conduct  attributed  to  them  is  not  unfrequently  repre- 
hensible, their  purposes  can  often  be  thwarted  by  the  help  of 
other  gods,  and  the  bravest  warriors  are  sometimes  even  ready 

*  This  contrast  is  all  the  more  noteworthy  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  two  chief 
'  heroic '  deities,  Woden  (Othin)  and  Zeus,  are  of  essentially  different  origin.  The 
affinities  of  the  former  lie  rather  with  Hades— not  as  a  chthonic  being,  properly 
speaking,  but  as  lord  of  the  spirit  world. 


XVIII]  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC    AGE  42$ 

to  attack  them  openly.  Yet  the  human  and  the  divine  are  not 
confused ;  a  man  is  not  a  god,  though  many  heroes,  both 
Teutonic  and  Greek,  are  sprung  from  gods.  It  should  be 
observed  that  the  deity  from  whom  most  English  princes  claimed 
descent  is  Woden,  a  universal  and  not  a  tribal  god.  This  belief 
must  be  regarded  as  an  anti-tribal  force. 

5.  Both  in  Northern  tradition  and  in  the  Homeric  poems 
the  practice  of  cremation  was  associated  with  the  belief  in  a 
common  home  for  the  souls  of  the  dead.  This  practice  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  common  even  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  Viking  Age  ;  and  consequently  the  tradition  probably  comes 
down  from  the  Heroic  Age,  at  which  time  we  know  that  crema- 
tion was  widely  prevalent.  The  cheerless  home  of  Hades^ 
differs  considerably  from  Valhalla,  though  there  is  some  ground 
for  suspecting  that  the  Greeks  of  the  Heroic  Age  had  once 
cherished  a  belief  endowed  with  greater  vitality.  But  both  con- 
ceptions possess  certain  essential  features  in  common,  namely 
the  removal  of  the  soul  to  a  distant  place — a  belief  really 
incompatible  with  the  local  worship  of  heroes  or  manes — and 
the  fact  that  this  distant  place  of  souls  was  a  universal  home 
and  not  reserved  for  the  souls  of  one  tribe.  This  belief  again 
was  doubtless  an  anti-tribal  force  of  considerable  importance. 

Briefly  then  we  may  define  as  the  predominant  characteristic 
of  heroic  religion,  both  Greek  and  Teutonic,  the  subordination 
of  chthonic  and  tribal  cults,  which  as  a  rule  go  together,  to  the 
worship  of  a  number  of  universally  recognised  and  highly  an- 
thropomorphic deities — coupled  with  the  belief  in  a  common 
and  distant  land  of  souls.     These  characteristics,  at  all  events 

^  The  characterisation  of  the  home  of  Hades  resembles  rather  that  of  the  Northern 
abode  of  Hel  (cf.  p.  400,  note).  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  latter  conception 
is  founded  upon  a  belief  of  considerable  antiquity,  though,  except  in  the  North,  all 
our  information  relating  to  it  comes  from  sources  affected  by  Christian  influence. 
From  references  in  early  poetry,  as  well  as  from  popular  belief  in  later  times,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  early  Teutonic  conception  of  Hell  (Goth,  halja,  etc.)  involved 
something  more  than  a  survival  of  the  soul  in  or  about  the  place  of  sepulture,  though 
there  is  nothing  to  show  that  it  vi^as  identical  with  Valhalla.  For  the  personification 
of  Hell  definite  evidence  is  wanting  ;  yet  note  should  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  such 
beings  as  Holda  and  Berhta  (like  Freyia  and  Gefion)  were  connected  with  the  spirit 
world. 


426  RELIGION    IN    THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

among  the  Teutonic  peoples,  seem  properly  to  have  belonged 
only  to  the  religion  of  the  royal  and  military  classes.  Hence^ 
when  the  royal  families  are  converted  to  a  new  faith,  as  in 
England,  or  when  kingless  states  grow  up,  as  in  Iceland,  we 
find  in  all  cases  more  or  less  of  a  reversion  to  the  more  primitive 
forms  of  religion.  It  is  on  the  same  principle  that  I  would 
account  for  the  differences  in  religion  between  heroic  and 
historical  Greece. 


XVIII]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   THE   GAULS  427 


NOTE  VIII.  THE  SOCIAL,  POLITICAL  AND 
RELIGIOUS  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE 
CELTIC   AND   SLAVONIC    HEROIC   AGES. 

In  the  last  three  chapters  we  have  confined  our  attention  almost  exclusively 
to  the  Teutonic  and  Greek  Heroic  Ages.  It  is  not  to  be  overlooked  however 
that  similar  phenomena  occur  elsewhere.  The  closest  and  most  interesting 
parallels,  at  least  in  Europe,  are  probably  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the 
ancient  Gauls. 

It  has  been  mentioned  above  that  Gaulish  hterature  has  entirely  perished. 
We  are  dependent  therefore  for  our  information  upon  a  few  scattered  references 
in  the  works  of  Greek  and  Roman  writers.  These  however  are  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  Gauls  possessed  a  well-known  and  influential  class  of  pro- 
fessional minstrels  (^ap8ot),  whose  chief  occupation  seems  to  have  been  the 
composition  of  heroic  poetry*.  Like  the  minstrels  of  the  Teutonic  and  Greek 
Heroic  Ages  these  persons  were  attached  to  the  courts  of  kings,  and  their 
poems  dealt  with  the  praises  of  living  princes  as  well  as  with  the  deeds  of 
heroes  of  the  past  I  With  the  disappearance  of  kingship,  early  in  the  first 
century  (B.C.),  their  standing  seems  to  have  been  impaired.  At  all  events 
they  are  never  mentioned  by  Caesar,  who  has  so  much  to  say  about  the 
Druids. 

It  is  probable  therefore  that  by  this  time  what  may  be  termed  the  Gaulish 
Heroic  Age  was  already  at  an  end.  How  long  it  had  lasted  we  cannot  tell, 
since  all  the  stories  have  perished.  We  may  certainly  note  however  that 
the  accounts  of  Gaulish  life  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  time 
before  the  nation  became  Romanised  show  a  most  striking  resemblance  to 
the  conditions  described  in  Teutonic  and  Greek  heroic  poetry.  The  longest 
of  these  accounts  is  the  one  given  by  Diodoros  (v  26fif.),  where  their  customs 
are  described  with  a  considerable  amount  of  detail.     The  picture  which  he 

^  Cf.  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  XV  9.  8  (probably  from  Timagenes)  :  et  Bardi 
quidem  fortia  uirorum  illustrium  facta  heroicis  composita  uersibus  cum  dulcibus  lyrae 
modulis  cantitarunt.     Cf.  also  Diodoros,  v  31;   Strabo,  iv  4.   4;  Lucan,  Phars.   i 

447  ff- 

^  Cf.  Athenaios,  VI  49  (quoting  Poseidonios) :  KeXrot  irepidyoi'Tai  ned'  avrujv  Kal 
iroXe/jLovvTes  (Tvn^iwras  oDs  KoKovffi  irapacriTovs.  ovtol  5e  iyKwfiia  avTwv  Kal  wpbi  ddpdovs 
\iyov(Ttv  dvOpibvovs  cvveardTas  Kal  irphs  ^KaffTou  tQv  Kari,  /xipos  iKelvwv  dKpowfxivwi'. 
TO,  5i  aKovanara  airrwv  el<nv  ol  KoXov/xevoi  Bdp5oi  ■  Trotijrai  S^  ovtoi  rvyxdvovcri  ixer 
(fdrjt  iiraivovs  X^yovres.  Reference  may  also  be  made  to  the  story  of  Luernios,  king 
of  the  Allobroges,  and  the  minstrel  who  arrived  too  late  (id.,  IV  37).  Cf.  also  Appian, 
Celtice,  §  12  (describing  the  arrival  of  an  envoy  sent  by  Bitoitos,  the  father  of  Luernios) : 
fiovcriKSs  T€  dv7)p  e'iirero,  ^ap^dpif)  fjLovffiKy  top  ^aaCKia  Bitoitov,  etr  ' AWS^piyai,  elra 
t6v  Trpeff^evTrjv  avrbv  ?s  re  7^«'os  Kal  dvdpeLav  Kal  irepiovalav  v/xvuiv  '  ov  5r)  Kal  /xdXiffTa 
^veKa  airoiis  oi  tQv  wpea^evruv  iwi<paveii  iirdyovrai. 


428  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   THE   GAULS  [CHAP. 

draws  of  their  methods  of  fighting,  their  love  of  boasting  i,  their  habits  in 
entertaining  strangers  ^  and  many  other  particulars  furnishes  a  parallel  to 
Homeric  life  closer  perhaps  than  may  be  found  even  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry. 

The  principle  of  personal  allegiance  seems  to  have  been  developed  among 
the  Gauls  to  a  very  high  degree,  although  our  information  dates  chiefly  from 
times  when  kingship  had  almost  entirely  disappeared.  We  have  scarcely 
sufficient  evidence  for  determining  whether  the  development  of  this  principle 
had  been  accompanied  by  a  relaxation  of  the  bonds  of  kindred.  But  Caesar's 
statement  {Gal/.,  vi  ii)  regarding  the  universal  prevalence  of  party  spirit 
points  in  this  direction ^  ;  and  it  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  attempts  were 
made  upon  the  lives  of  more  than  one  of  the  princes  who  had  submitted  to 
him.  There  is  reason  for  suspecting  that  among  the  Celtic  peoples,  as  among 
the  Teutonic,  the  organisation  of  the  kindred  had  undergone  a  change, 
probably  at  no  very  remote  period.  The  Picts  adhered  to  succession  in  the 
female  line,  at  all  events  in  the  royal  family,  down  to  the  eighth  century  ; 
and  there  are  said  to  be  traces  of  the  same  type  of  succession  in  Ireland. 
It  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  Pictish  succession  was  a  pre-Celtic 
institution  ;  but  no  evidence  worth  consideration  has  been  adduced  in  favour 
of  this  view.  We  need  not  doubt  the  existence  of  pre-Celtic  inhabitants  in 
Scotland.  But  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  rest  of  the  British  Isles  and 
at  least  a  considerable  part  of  Gaul,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  in  Scotland 
alone  (or  Scotland  and  Ireland)  so  important  a  change  should  have  been 
taken  over  from  the  aborigines.  In  Gaul  succession  certainly  passed  in  the 
male  line  in  the  first  century  (B.C.).  But  in  the  earliest  Gaulish  tradition  of 
which  we  have  record  the  title  to  sovereignty  seems  to  go,  as  among  the 
Picts,  to  the  sons  of  the  king's  sister*. 

The  political  organisation  of  the  Gauls  appears  to  have  been  similar  to 
that  of  the  Teutonic  peoples,  though  kingship  was  dying  out  in  the  first 
century.  We  find  a  considerable  number  of  comparatively  small  nations 
{ciuitates),  each  of  which  apparently  possessed  a  royal  family  of  its  own. 
From  time  to  time  one  of  these  acquired  a  position  of  supremacy  over  all  or 

^  Kara,  hk  ras  iraparA^eis  eludaai  irpodyeiv  ttjs  wapaTa^euiS  Kal  irpoKO.Xe'iadai  tQv 
dvn.TfTay/iUi'uv  Toiis  dplarovs  eli  /lovo/J.ax^O-'',  irpoavaffelovrfS  to.  SttXo  Kal  KarairXrjTTS- 
fievot  Tous  ivavrlovi.  '6rav  Si  tls  vnaKo^arj  irpos  Ti)v  /tidx'?''  '''"■^  ^^  '''^''  T^poybvuv 
dvSpayadias  i^vp-vovffi  Kal  ras  eavrOiv  aperds  irpo(pipovTai  Kal  tov  dvTLraTT6p.evQV 
i^ovetSi^ovffi  Kal  raTretfoOcri  Kal  rb  aivokov  to  ddpaot  r^s  ^VXV^  '''<'"  X6701J  irpo- 
a<paLpovi'Tai  (v   29). 

^  ir\ri<xiov  5'  aiirCbv  iaxdpai  /cciirai  yifiov(rai  wvpbs  Kal  X^/St/tos  ^xoi'"""'  f^i  (5/3eXoi)s 
irXripeis  KpeCov  oXop-epCiv.  roiis  5'  dyadovs  &v5pas  rats  KaXMiTTais  twv  KpeCiv  ixolpan 
yepaLpov<Ti...Ka\ov<n  8^  Kal  tovs  ^ivovs  eirl  ras  iiiuixias  Kal  yuerd  to  deiirvov  inepwTuiffi. 
TtVes  iial  Kal  tLvujv  xpc^a"  ^X^'i"'""'  i^^-  '^^)- 

3  We  may  compare  also  what  is  said  (ib.  i  20)  of  the  relations  of  Diuiciacus  and 
Dumnorix.  The  latter  had  a  large  comitatus  of  his  own :  magnum  numerum  equitatus 
sua  sitmptu  semper  alere  et  circum  se  habere  (i  18). 

*  Cf.  Livy,  V  34. 


XVIII]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   THE   GAULS  429 

many  of  the  others.  Sometimes  too  sections  of  the  same  nation  appear  in 
widely  different  regions.  Thus  we  find  Senones  and  Lingones  both  in  Gaul 
and  Italy,  Boii  in  Bavaria  (Bohemia)  and  Italy,  Volcae  Tectosages  in 
Germany  and  the  south  of  Gaul — Tectosages  also  in  Galatia.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  in  such  cases  one  of  these  sections  is  an  offshoot  from  the 
other  and  owes  its  origin  to  some  military  expedition. 

In  regard  to  religion  Caesar  {ib.^  vi  21)  draws  a  striking  contrast  between 
the  Gauls  and  the  Germans,  though  his  account  of  the  latter  in  this  respect 
will  not  hold  good  for  the  Heroic  Age.  Gaulish  religion  was  polytheistic 
and  highly  anthropomorphic  ;  it  would  seem  also  that  the  gods  were  regarded 
as  forming  an  organised  community.  The  method  employed  in  the  disposal 
of  the  dead  was  cremation  ;  and  here  too  this  practice  was  associated  with 
a  vivid  conception  of  immortality.  In  all  these  respects  Gaulish  religion 
seems  to  have  differed  little  from  the  types  which  we  find  in  the  Teutonic 
and  Greek  Heroic  Ages,  although  apparently  the  behef  in  immortahty  largely 
took  the  form  of  metempsychosis.  Only  in  one  particular  can  we  detect 
a  really  important  difference  between  Gaulish  religion  and  the  others,  namely 
in  the  influence  of  the  priesthood.  This  feature  however  seems  to  have  been 
peculiar  to  Gaul  itself  and  Britain  ;  at  all  events  we  hear  nothing  of  Druids 
elsewhere.  Indeed  according  to  Caesar  (vi  13)  the  institution  was  believed 
to  have  originated  in  Britain  ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  some 
of  its  characteristic  features  may  have  developed  in  this  country.  More 
than  this  we  cannot  safely  say,  since  there  is  an  obvious — and  probably  by 
no  means  superficial — resemblance  between  Druidism  and  the  priesthood  of 
the  Prussians  and  Lithuanians. 

In  previous  Notes  (p.  loi  ff.)  we  spoke  of  two  other  Heroic  Ages— those 
of  the  Bosnian  Mohammedans,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
and  of  the  Cumbrian  Welsh,  about  a  thousand  years  earlier.  In  Note  VII 
we  discussed  briefly  one  of  the  leading  incidents  in  the  (Christian)  Servian 
Heroic  Age,  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In  all  these  cases  the  question  of 
religion  is  better  left  out  of  account ;  for  though  the  form  taken  by  Christianity 
or  Mohammedanism  was  doubtless  influenced  to  some  extent  by  national 
characteristics,  the  two  religions  were  essentially  of  foreign  origin. 

Among  the  Bosnians  however  the  influence  of  Mohammedanism  affected 
also  the  organisation  of  society,  while  the  government  was  in  the  hands  of 
pashas  sent  from  Constantinople.  On  the  whole  the  conditions  appear  to 
have  little  in  common  with  those  of  the  Teutonic  and  Greek  Heroic  Ages. 
Even  the  principle  of  personal  allegiance  is  not  much  in  evidence. 

On  the  other  hand  this  principle  is  very  prominent  in  the  Christian 
Servian  poems,  at  all  events  in  those  which  deal  with  the  battle  of  Kossovo. 
It  is  exemplified  both  in  the  relations  of  squires  (such  as  Vaistina)  with  their 
lords  and  in  those  of  the  latter  with  the  king.  In  the  poem  on  the  banquet 
(Karadzic,  il  50  iii),  which  we  have  discussed  above  (p.  315),  it  is  to  this 
principle   alone   that    Lazar   appeals,    when   he    reproaches    Milos    for  his 


430  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   THE   GAULS  [CHAP. 

suspected  disloyalty  ;  and  though  the  latter  in  his  reply  does  mention  that 
he  intends  to  die  for  the  Christian  faith,  he  too  evidently  regards  loyalty  to 
his  king  as  his  primary  duty.  My  knowledge  of  this  subject  is  unfortunately 
not  sufficient  to  enable  me  to  form  an  opinion  as  to  whether  the  growth  of 
the  bond  of  allegiance  was  accompanied  by  a  relaxation  of  the  bonds  of 
kinship.  In  the  lower  ranks  of  society  however  the  kindred  has  preserved 
down  to  the  present  time  perhaps  greater  vitality  among  the  Servians  than 
in  any  other  European  nation.  The  type  of  government  which  we  find 
prevailing  in  the  fourteenth  century  is  far  removed  from  that  democratic 
system  which  Procopius  {Goth.,  ill  14)  ascribes  to  the  Slavs  some  six  centuries 
previously.  The  governors  whom  Dusan  appointed  in  various  parts  of  his 
dominions  became  practically  independent  princes  after  his  death,  although 
their  principalities  rested  apparently  on  no  national  basis.  Both  in  Servia 
proper  and  elsewhere  the  control  of  affairs  seems  to  have  been  very  largely 
in  the  hands  of  the  royal  family. 

For  the  Cumbrian  Heroic  Age  our  information  is  sadly  deficient.  The 
evidence  of  the  poems  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  potency  of  the  force  of 
personal  allegiance.  With  regard  to  the  kindred  I  know  of  no  evidence, 
unless  we  take  account  of  the  Welsh  laws,  which  belong  to  a  different  region 
and  to  a  period  several  centuries  later.  The  kingdoms  seem  to  have  been 
fairly  numerous,  and  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  their  organisation  differed 
much  from  that  of  Teutonic  kingdoms  of  the  Heroic  Age.  Whether  they 
rested  on  any  national  basis  we  cannot  tell ;  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
practically  all  their  territories  had  once  been  included  within  the  Roman 
frontiers  ^ 

^  The  rise  of  the  Cumbrian  kingdoms  presents  a  difficulty  which  historians  do  not 
seem  to  me  to  have  sufficiently  realised.  During  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  the 
northern  parts  of  the  province  were  repeatedly  menaced  and  ravaged  by  Pictish 
invaders.  Yet  after  the  fifth  century  we  hear  practically  nothing  more  of  Picts  in  the 
south  of  Scotland  (except  in  Galloway).  On  the  other  hand  it  was  in  this  region  that 
the  Britons  offered  the  most  determined  resistance  to  the  English.  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  sixth  century  Urien  is  said  {Hist.  Br.,  §  63)  to  have  besieged  them  on  one 
occasion  in  Lindisfarne  {Metcaud);  and  in  Strathclyde  the  Britons  maintained  their 
independence,  except  for  one  or  two  brief  intervals,  until  long  after  the  disappearance 
of  the  Northumbrian  kingdom.  It  is  often  assumed,  though  on  somewhat  slender 
grounds,  that  the  Britons  held  only  the  south-west  of  Scotland  and  that  the  south-east 
(Lothian,  etc.)  was  Pictish  before  the  English  conquest.  But  this  hypothesis  does  not 
get  rid  of  the  difificulties ;  for  it  is  from  Manau  Guotodin,  a  district  always  regarded 
as  Pictish,  that  Cunedda  is  said  to  have  come  {ib.,  §  62).  I  suspect  that  the  distinction 
between  Picts  and  Britons  was  not  so  rigid  as  is  commonly  supposed.  Unfortunately 
Celtic  scholars  have  not  yet  been  able  to  come  to  any  agreement  as  to  the  character 
of  the  Pictish  language.  Some  hold  that  it  was  British  (Brythonic),  others  Gaelic 
(Goidelic),  others  again  non-Celtic.  Possibly  all  these  views  may  contain  a  certain 
amount  of  truth.  At  all  events  it  seems  to  me  quite  incredible  that  Gaelic  was  not 
introduced  into  Scotland  before  the  sixth  century.     All  indications  appear  to  me  to 


XVIII]  THE   HEROIC   AGE   OF   THE   GAULS  43 1 

Both  these  cases  then  appear  to  show  a  number  of  the  features  which 
characterise  the  Teutonic  and  Greek  Heroic  Ages,  though  scarcely  to  the 
same  degree  as  is  the  case  with  the  civilisation  of  the  ancient  Gauls. 
Analogies  may  also  be  found  in  the  French  and  Russian  Heroic  Ages  ;  but 
I  am  not  aware  that  either  of  these  presents  any  remarkable  characteristics 
which  do  not  occur  in  one  or  other  of  those  with  which  we  have  dealt.  On 
the  other  hand  I  have  no  doubt  that  many  interesting  features  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Irish  Heroic  Age  (or  rather  perhaps  Heroic  Ages').  This 
subject  however  is  beset  with  such  extreme  difficulties  of  every  kind  that 
I  dare  not  touch  it. 

favour  the  view  that  this  language  belonged  to  a  wave  of  Celtic  invasion  earlier  than 
the  British.  Yet  I  see  no  objection  to  supposing  that  in  pre-Roman  times  the  true 
(Gaelic)  Picts — who  probably  included  a  non-Celtic  substratum — may  have  been 
overlaid  in  part  by  a  British  element.  If  so,  it  is  far  from  improbable  that  the  south 
of  Scotland  in  its  turn  received  a  '  Pictish '  element,  when  that  district  was  abandoned 
by  the  Romans.  A  mixed  population  of  this  kind  would  readily  enough  coalesce 
with  the  native  (British)  inhabitants. 

'  So  also  in  the  Pleroic  Ages  of  non-European  peoples.  Important  parallels  are 
certainly  furnished  by  Sanskrit  epic  poetry. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  CAUSES  AND  ANTECEDENT  CONDITIONS 
OF  THE  HEROIC  AGE 

In  the  course  of  the  last  three  chapters  we  have  observed 
many  remarkable  resemblances  between  the  Teutonic  and  Greek 
Heroic  Ages — in  social  organisation,  in  the  forms  of  government 
and  in  religious  conceptions.  Further  we  have  seen  that  in  the 
former  case  the  testimony  of  the  poems  is  fully  substantiated  by 
contemporary  historical  authorities.  In  the  latter  case  we  possess 
no  evidence  which  affords  us  ground  for  doubting  that  the  poems 
give  an  equally  faithful  reflection  of  conditions  and  ideas  which 
prevailed  in  real  life.  Our  next  and  final  object  is  to  enquire 
into  the  nature  of  the  causes  to  which  the  common  characteristics 
of  the  two  Heroic  Ages  are  due. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  one  will  seriously  suggest  the 
possibility  of  a  historical  connection  between  the  two  Heroic 
Ages,  separated  as  they  are  from  one  another  by  an  interval  of 
some  fourteen  or  fifteen  centuries.  It  is  perhaps  conceivable 
that  one  or  other  of  the  common  elements  which  we  have  noted 
may  have  originated  in  Greece  and  worked  its  way  round  until 
it  appears  after  so  long  a  lapse  of  time  in  the  north  of  Europe^ 
But  for  the  phenomena  as  a  whole  any  such  explanation  is 
incredible. 

1  Cremation  may  have  a  common  origin  in  the  two  cases ;  but  this  practice  ap- 
pears to  have  been  introduced  into  the  North  at  least  fifteen  centuries  before  the 
Heroic  Age.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  origin  of  the  practice  may  be  found  in 
the  late  neolithic  settlements  in  the  district  of  the  Dniestr  and  Dniepr — dating  probably 
from  the  latter  part  of  the  third  millennium  (cf.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums^, 
I  §  537)-  Evidence  however  is  now  accumulating  to  the  effect  that  cremation  was 
practised  in  Crete  in  Early  Minoan  times. 


CHAP.  XIX]       THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  433 

Another  explanation  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  Greek 
and  Teutonic  peoples  are  ultimately  related,  at  least  linguistic- 
ally— both  being  members  of  the  Indo-European  family.  It  is 
only  reasonable  therefore  to  expect  that  they  may  have  inherited 
common  characteristics.  But  this  explanation  does  not  in  itself 
account  for  the  fact  that  the  Heroic  Age  begins  in  one  case 
some  fourteen  or  fifteen  centuries  after  the  other.  Moreover 
the  Heroic  Age  of  the  Southern  Slavs  begins  about  a  thousand 
years  later  than  that  of  the  Teutonic  peoples,  while  we  have  no 
evidence  that  the  Lithuanians  ever  had  a  Heroic  Age.  Yet 
both  of  these  equally  belong  to  the  Indo-European  linguistic 
family. 

Again  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  causes  responsible  for 
the  Heroic  Age  are  to  be  found  not  so  much  in  ethnical  affinity 
as  in  the  possession  of  a  similar  stage  of  culture.  The  term 
'Early  Iron  Age'  is  customarily  applied  to  both  the  Teutonic 
and  Greek  Heroic  Ages.  But  this  common  application  of  the 
term  is  misleading.  In  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  the  use  of  iron, 
at  all  events  for  weapons,  seems  to  have  been  only  beginning, 
whereas  the  Teutonic  peoples  had  been  using  iron  weapons  for 
at  least  seven  or  eight  centuries  before  their  Heroic  Age.  More- 
over both  the  Lithuanians  and  the  Southern  Slavs  have  passed 
through  similar  stages  of  culture — in  the  latter  case  many  cen- 
turies before  the  first  Servian  Heroic  Age. 

The  suggestions  put  forward  above  may  doubtless  help  to 
account  for  certain  features  in  both  the  Teutonic  and  the  Greek 
Heroic  Ages  ;  but  it  cannot  be  contended  that  they  are  capable, 
whether  singly  or  collectively,  of  explaining  the  phenomena  as  a 
whole.  If  we  are  to  obtain  a  more  satisfactory  explanation  we 
shall  do  well  in  the  first  place  to  give  our  attention  to  the  out- 
standing characteristics  of  that  period  of  history  which  coincides 
with  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age. 

This  period  was  a  momentous  time  in  Teutonic  history.  In 
the  first  place  it  saw  the  conversion  of  most  of  the  Continental 
peoples  to  Christianity.  But  probably  no  one  will  suggest  that 
the  Heroic  Age  was  an  outcome  of  this  change.  On  the  other 
hand  the  same  period  witnessed  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire 
and   the  occupation    of  almost  all   its  territories    by  Teutonic 


434  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

peoples.  The  effect  of  these  movements  must  have  been  enor- 
mous, and  in  them  we  may  reasonably  expect  to  find  at  least 
one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  phenomena  which  we  are  discussing. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Vandals  and 
Visigoths,  who  penetrated  farthest  into  the  empire,  do  not 
figure  in  stories  of  the  Heroic  Age,  while  even  the  Franks  are 
less  conspicuous  than  the  Danes,  who  took  no  part  in  these 
movements. 

In  the  case  of  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  we  have  unfortunately 
to  depend  upon  inferences,  since  no  historical  evidence  is  obtain- 
able. Not  many  years  ago  Prof.  Ridgeway^  advanced  a  very 
interesting  theory,  which  has  greatly  influenced  subsequent 
opinion,  at  least  in  this  country.  This  theory,  stated  briefly,  is 
to  the  effect  that  the  Achaeans  were  a  people  from  Central 
Europe  who  had  made  their  way  into  Greece  by  way  of  Epeiros, 
not  very  long  before  the  Heroic  Age,  and  conquered  the  indi- 
genous inhabitants,  whom  he  calls  Pelasgians.  In  support  of 
this  view  he  has  brought  forward  a  large  number  of  arguments 
relating  to  physical  characteristics,  habits,  dress,  armour,  social 
organisation,  religion,  funeral  customs,  etc.,  in  which  he  shows 
that  the  affinities  of  the  Homeric  Achaeans  lie  with  the  Celtic 
peoples  rather  than  with  the  earlier  inhabitants  of  Greece. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  enter  into  a  detailed  discussion  of 
Prof.  Ridgeway's  theory.  The  first  objection  which  may  be 
raised  against  it  lies  in  the  absence  of  traditional  evidence  for 
the  great  movement  of  population  which  it  involves — evidence 
such  as  we  possess  for  the  Dorian  conquest  and  the  Ionic  migra- 
tion. The  force  of  this  objection  depends  of  course  a  good  deal 
upon  what  may  be  called  details,  e.g.  the  date  of  the  invasion, 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  invaders  and  the  method  by  which 
the  conquest  was  effected.  A  more  serious  objection  is  perhaps 
to  be  found  in  the  conditions  postulated  by  Prof.  Ridgeway  for 
Central  Europe.  Probably  few  who  have  given  much  attention 
to  the  subject  will  be  inclined  to  dispute  that  the  affinities  of 
Homeric  civilisation  lie  in  many  respects  with  that  of  the  Celtic 
peoples,  rather  than  with  the  earlier  civilisation  of  the  Aegean. 

'   The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  Vol.  i,  Ch.  iv  and  passim,  together  with  a  number  of 
articles  which  have  appeared  in  various  publications. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  435 

But  all  the  evidence  at  our  disposal  seems  to  indicate  that 
among  the  Celtic  peoples  this  type  of  civilisation  belongs  to  a 
much  later  period.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  even  at 
Hallstatt  and  elsewhere  in  the  Eastern  Alps  the  earliest  use  of 
iron^  goes  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  first  millennium,  and  it 
is  extremely  doubtful  whether  these  deposits  are  of  Celtic 
origin^  In  order  to  prove  that  Homeric  civilisation  came  from 
Central  Europe  evidence  must  be  adduced  showing  that  the 
chronology  usually  accepted  by  archaeologists  is  mistaken  and 
that  a  civilisation  of  the  same  type  prevailed  in  that  region  far 
back  in  the  second  millennium.  Until  such  evidence  is  forth- 
coming it  appears  more  probable  that  both  the  civilisation  of 
Central  and  Western  Europe  and  the  non-Mycenean  elements 
in  Homeric  civilisation  have  radiated  from  a  common  centre, 
the  true  home  of  which  has  not  yet  been  discovered. 

These  considerations  however  must  not  be  allowed  to  obscure 
the  fact  that  Prof  Ridgeway's  observations  have  thrown  light 
on  a  number  of  serious  difficulties  in  early  Greek  history.  In 
the  first  place  he  has  rightly  insisted  upon  a  recognition  of  the 
great  differences  noticeable  between  Homeric  and  Mycenean 
civilisation — differences  which  can  hardly  be  accounted  for 
except  by  some  such  explanation  as  that  which  he  has  brought 
forward.  It  is  now  admitted  by  the  majority  of  scholars  that 
the  Aegean  civilisation  cannot  have  originated  with  the  Achaeans ; 
but  there  is  still  great  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of 
its  relations  with  this  people.  Some  hold  that  the  prehistoric 
civilisation  of  Crete  was  non-Achaean — and  indeed  non-Greek — 
until  its  fall,  and  yet  believe  that  Mycenae  and  the  other  cities 
of  the  mainland  were  always  Achaean.  Others  again  hold  that 
the  later  remains  both  on  the  mainland  and  in  Crete  are 
Achaean,  while   the  earlier  ones,  at  all   events  in   Crete,   were 

'  I  mention  this  point  only  because  Prof.  Ridgeway  lays  stress  upon  it.  I  do  not 
myself  regard  the  use  of  iron  weapons  as  an  essential  characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age. 
The  evidence  seems  to  me  to  indicate  that  such  weapons  came  into  use  only  towards 
the  close  of  the  period  (of.  p.  199  ff.). 

^  By  this  term  I  mean  'belonging  to  communities  which  spoke  Celtic  languages.' 
It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  Prof.  Ridgeway  appears  to  have  racial  (physical),  rather 
than  linguistic,  characteristics  in  view.  But  I  am  not  clear  whether  he  means  to 
include  among  his  'Celts'  peoples  who  used  other  than  Celtic  languages. 


436  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

non-Achaean.  But  neither  of  these  theories  accounts  for  the 
differences  between  Mycenean  and  Homeric  civiHsation'.  Both 
alike  involve  the  assumption  that  the  latter  is  a  reflection  of  the 
conditions  of  a  later  age — an  assumption  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  can  scarcely  be  reconciled  with  the  evidence  of  the 
poems  on  the  use  of  the  metals  and  other  matters  discussed 
above. 

Secondly,  Prof  Ridgeway  has  pointed  out  the  groundlessness 
of  the  prevalent  hypothesis  that  the  Achaeans  were  the  first 
Greek-speaking  inhabitants  of  Greece.  He  has  rightly  insisted 
on  the  antiquity  of  the  Arcadians  and  Athenians,  together  with 
certain  other  peoples,  lonians  and  Cypriotes,  who  had  emigrated 
from  Greece,  and  at  the  same  time  called  attention  to  the  fact — 
which  is  commonly  overlooked — that  none  of  these  peoples 
claimed  to  be  of  Achaean  origin  I  The  Achaean  communities 
of  historical  times  used  dialects  of  the  West  Greek  type,  as 
distinct  from  Ionic  or  Arcadian  as  they  are  from  Aeolic,  and  we 
have  no  evidence  that  they  ever  spoke  a  different  type  of  lan- 
guage. On  this  subject  however  enough  has  been  said  above 
(p.  281  ff.).  The  name  'Pelasgian,'  which  Prof  Ridgeway  applies 
to  the  earlier  Greek  inhabitants,  seems  to  me  to  be  open  to 
objection ;  yet  the  evidence  of  Herodotus  can  be  adduced  in  its 
favour. 

^  What  I  mean  by  the  term  '  Homeric  civilisation '  will  probably  be  clear  from 
Chapters  X  and  XI.  I  cannot  admit  that  a  satisfactory  case  has  been  made  out  for 
believing  the  civilisation  of  the  Heroic  Age  to  have  differed  widely  from  that  of  the 
poets'  own  times.  The  excavations  at  Cnossos  have  brought  to  light  the  existence 
(in  'Late  Minoan'  times)  of  a  highly  organised  bureaucratic  system,  for  which 
analogies  enough  are  to  be  found  in  Egyptian  records  of  the  same  period.  But  the 
poems  themselves  do  not  give  the  slightest  hint  of  acquaintance  with  such  a  system. 
The  absence  of  striking  inconsistencies  which  has  been  remarked  above  (p.  241)  is 
unintelligible  unless  the  civilisation  with  which  the  poets  themselves  were  acquainted — 
presumably  in  Aeolis — was  a  more  or  less  direct  continuation  of  that  of  the  Heroic 
Age.  Such  changes  as  had  taken  place  were  in  general  probably  of  a  retrograde 
character,  in  spite  of  the  growing  use  of  iron  and  possibly  also  of  riding.  But  there 
is  no  ground,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  for  supposing  that  the  Homeric  poems  are  records 
of  the  people  and  events  of  a  highly  civilised  age  preserved  by  the  traditions  of  a 
semi -barbaric  society. 

"^  Both  in  Ionia  and  Cyprus  there  were  of  course  cities  which,  according  to 
tradition,  had  been  founded  by  Achaean  colonists.  But  the  Greek  population  as 
a  whole  made  no  such  claim  in  either  case.     For  Cyprus  cf.  Herodotus  vil  90. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  437 

Thirdly,  when  Prof.  Ridgeway  holds  that  the  route  by  which 
the  Achaeans  made  their  way  southwards  was  through  Epeiros 
he  has  in  his  favour  an  argument  of  considerable  weight  in  the 
antiquity  and  importance  of  the  sanctuary  at  Dodona,  which  in 
historical  times  lay  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the  Greek  world. 
But,  apart  from  this,  the  linguistic  geography  of  Greece  is 
unintelligible  to  me  unless  dialects  of  the  Arcadian  and  Ionic 
types  were  once  spoken  over  a  much  larger  area  in  Greece 
proper  than  that  in  which  we  find  them  in  historical  times.  All 
indications  seem  to  point  to  the  region  west  of  Pindos  as  the 
home  of  that  West  Greek  group  to  which  the  Achaean  dialects 
belong^ 

Lastly  it  must  be  regarded  as  improbable  that  Epeiros  was 
solely  responsible  for  those  elements  in  Homeric  or  Achaean 
civilisation  which  differentiate  it  from  that  of  the  Mycenean  age 
and  at  the  same  time  connect  it  with  the  civilisations  of  Central 
and  Western  Europe.  In  historical  times  this  country  had 
passed  almost  entirely  into  the  possession  of  barbarian  peoples 
owing  to  pressure  from  the  north,  and  we  have  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  this  process  was  new.  It  is  commonly  held  that 
in  the  period  preceding  the  Heroic  Age^  there  had  been  great 

*  Aristotle  (Meteorolog.  i  14.  21  f.)  applies  the  term  'EXXas  i}  apxaia.  to  the  country 
round  Dodona  and  the  Acheloos ;  but  it  is  commonly  held  that  in  this  he  was 
following  a  late  Molossian  stcry  relating  to  Dodona,  rather  than  a  genuine  tradition. 
Yet  the  part  played  by  the  Acheron  in  Greek  religion  and  poetry  (of.  p.  422)  suggests 
that  this  region  was  at  one  time  traditionally  regarded  by  a  portion  of  the  Greek  race 
as  its  home-land. 

^  A  different  view  is  taken  by  Prof.  Meyer  {Gesch.  d.  Alt?,  i  §  473,  note)  who 
accepts  the  statement  of  the  Lydian  historian  Xanthos  (quoted  by  Strabo,  xiv  5.  29  ; 
cf.  XII  8.  3)  that  the  Phrygian  invasion  took  place  ii-^to.  to.  TpuiKd.  He  holds  that 
this  statement  is  confirmed  by  a  passage  in  Proclus'  epitome  of  the  Telegony 
(cf.  Kinkel,  £pic.  Gr.  Fragm.,  p.  57),  where  the  Thesprotoi  are  represented  as  being 
at  war  with  the  Brygoi.  But  the  latter  are  clearly  the  Brygoi  of  Albania;  and  there 
is  nothing  in  the  context  to  suggest  that  the  Phrygians  (of  Asia)  were  believed  to  be 
still  with  their  kinsfolk  in  the  west.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  statement  of  a  fifth 
century  writer,  who  is  known  only  from  fragments,  requires  stronger  confirmation 
than  this  before  it  can  be  accepted  as  evidence  for  the  chronological  relationship  of 
events  which  took  place  some  seven  centuries  before  his  time.  Especially  is  this  the 
case  when  such  a  statement  is  directly  opposed  to  several  passages  in  the  Iliad,  which 
clearly  recognise  the  presence  of  the  Phrygians  in  Asia.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
queen  (Hecabe)  is  said  to  be  a  Phrygian  it  is  scarcely  safe  to  assume  that  these 
elements  are  unessential  or  late  additions  to  the  story.    But,  more  than  this,  Xanthos' 


438  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

movements  of  population  from  the  Balkan  peninsula  into  the 
north-west  of  Asia  Minor — a  process  which  likewise  was  repeated 
in  later  times.  What  little  evidence  we  have  for  the  civilisation  of 
these  peoples  does  not  suggest  any  great  difference  between 
their  civilisation  and  that  of  the  Homeric  Greeks.  The  Homeric 
poems  in  particular  seem  to  draw  little  or  no  distinction  in  this 
respect  between  the  Achaeans  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Trojans 
and  their  allies  on  the  other.  Hence,  whatever  may  be  our 
attitude  to  the  arguments  based  on  physical  characteristics,  etc., 
on  which  Prof  Ridgeway  lays  so  much  weight,  we  cannot, 
I  think,  reasonably  regard  it  as  improbable  that  Epeiros  had  long 
been  affected  by  movements  from  the  same  quarter.  Indeed  the 
existence  of  considerable  '  Illyrian  '  or  semi-Illyrian  populations 

account  itself  does  not  appear  to  be  free  from  Homeric  influence.  The  names 
BepfKivTuv  and  'AffKavia$  may  possibly  be  derived  from  Phrygian  tradition — perhaps 
ultimately  from  the  same  source  as  II.  ii  862  f. — but  the  leader's  name  (SKa/xavSpios) 
is  not  only  Homeric  but  obviously  a  derivative  of  T^Kd/xavSpos,  the  name  of  a  river  in 
the  Troad.  It  may  be  observed  that  a  hero  of  the  same  name  (Hector's  son)  figures 
in  a  somewhat  similar  story  recorded  by  Strabo  elsewhere  (xill  i.  52)  ;  and  for  my 
part  I  see  no  reason  for  attaching  more  importance  to  Xanthos'  account  than  to  this. 

The  expression  iK tQv  dpicrTepQv  tov  U6vtov  clearly  suggests  that  he  had  confused 

the  tradition  of  the  Phrygian  invasion  with  certain  much  later  movements  (of  the 
Bithynians,  Thynoi,  etc.),  some  of  which  do  seem  to  have  proceeded  from  the  quarter 
indicated.  On  the  other  hand  all  the  evidence  which  we  have  (cf.  Herodotus,  vil  73 
and  VIII  138,  and  the  position  of  the  Brygoi  in  historical  times)  points  to  the  western 
part  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  as  the  original  home  of  the  Phrygians. 

As  to  the  nationality  of  the  Trojans  themselves — the  Homeric  Trojans — Prof.  Meyer 
does  not  appear  to  have  expressed  an  opinion.  The  question  will  doubtless  be  discussed 
in  the  next  volume  of  his  work.  His  theory  however  would  seem  to  involve  that  any 
historical  events  which  may  underlie  the  story  of  the  Iliad  must  be  referred  at  least  to 
the  thirteenth  century  ;  for  the  date  which  he  gives  for  the  Phrygian  invasion  is  about, 
or  shortly  after,  1200.  Here  again  however  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  evidence 
is  far  from  conclusive.  There  may  very  well  be  a  connection  between  the  fall  of  the 
Hittite  kingdom,  which  apparently  did  take  place  about  this  time,  and  the  invasion 
encountered  by  Rameses  III  (cf.  p.  188).  But  I  am  by  no  means  clear  why  it  is 
necessary  to  conclude  that  the  Phrygian  invasion  immediately  preceded  these  events. 
If  the  Masa  and  Dardenui  of  the  Poem  of  Pentaur  are  rightly  identified  with  the 
Mysians  and  Dardanoi  we  shall  probably  have  to  date  the  earliest  settlements  at  least 
a  century  before  this  time.  As  for  the  Dardanoi — who  apparently  were  regarded  as 
the  parent  stock  of  the  Homeric  Trojans  (cf.  II.  xx  215  ff. ) — I  see  no  reason  for 
doubting  their  European  origin  any  more  than  that  of  the  Phrygians  (Brygoi)  and  the 
Mysians  (Moisoi),  whose  neighbours  they  were  both  in  Asia  and  in  the  Balkans.  But 
at  the  same  time  there  seems  to  me  to  be  equally  little  reason  for  referring  the  events 
on  which  the  Iliad  is  based  to  times  anterior  to  the  eleventh  century. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  439 

in  Italy,  which  certainly  date  from  pre-historic  times,  shows  that 
these  movements  took  a  south-westerly,  as  well  as  a  south- 
easterly, course.  A  common  centre  of  disturbance  may  be  found 
in  the  highlands  of  Albania  and  Upper  Macedonia,  though  I  do 
not  mean  to  deny  that  this  area  itself  may  have  been  affected 
by  movements  from  more  northern  regions. 

It  may  be  that  in  the  volumes  of  his  work  which  have  still 
to  appear  Prof.  Ridgeway  will  be  able  to  bring  forward  some 
stronger  evidence  in  favour  of  the  northern  origin  of  the 
Achaeans.  But  even  with  the  reservations  expressed  above  it 
will  be  seen  that  this  theory  provides  a  parallel  on  a  small  scale 
to  those  historical  movements  which  characterised  the  Heroic 
Age  of  the  Teutonic  peoples.  And  some  such  explanation  is 
certainly  required,  even  apart  from  the  Homeric  poems,  in  order 
to  account  for  the  archaeological  phenomena  and  the  ethnic  and 
linguistic  geography  of  Greece  in  the  historical  period.  It  is 
Prof.  Ridgeway 's  great  service  to  have  pointed  out  that  the 
'  Homeric  question '  is  only  a  part  of  a  much  greater  problem. 
Towards  the  solution  of  this  problem  little  progress  can  be  made 
by  hypotheses  like  those  which  we  have  discussed  in  Chapters 
XIII  and  XIV — according  to  which  one  hero  is  derived  from  a 
god  or  '  tribal  personification,'  while  another  is  a  fictitious 
character  which  a  credulous  public  has  come  to  regard  as 
historical.  Even  in  the  best  of  cases  it  is  only  the  surface  of 
the  problem  which  can  be  touched  by  such  investigations.  Prof. 
Ridgeway  has  shown  that  the  real  problem  which  lies  behind 
the  Homeric  poems  is  not,  as  has  been  said,  the  development  of 
Greek  heroic  tradition  ('  die  Entwickelung  der  griechischen 
Heldensage ')  but  the  character  and  origin  of  the  Greek  Heroic 
Age.  This  in  its  turn  must  be  regarded  as  only  one  of  a  series 
of  phenomena  which  we  meet  with  among  various  peoples  and  at 
various  periods  of  the  world's  history.  In  short  the  real  problem 
presented  by  the  Homeric  poems  is  one  not  of  literature  but  of 
anthropology. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  was  a  time  of 
great  national  movements  and  that  something  of  the  same  kind 
appears  to  have  taken   place  in  or  shortly  before    the  Greek 


440  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Heroic  Age.  But  it  is  obvious  enough  that  such  movements  in 
themselves  will  not  account  for  the  common  characteristics  of 
the  two  Heroic  Ages  which  we  have  discussed  in  the  last  three 
chapters.  In  order  to  obtain  an  explanation  of  these  phenomena 
we  shall  have  to  take  the  evidence  of  other  Heroic  Ages  into 
consideration. 

In  the  course  of  our  discussion  we  have  had  occasion  to  refer 
to  four  other  Heroic  Ages,  namely  those  of  the  Mohammedan 
and  the  Christian  Servians,  the  Cumbrian  Welsh  and  the  ancient 
Gauls.  Taking  account  of  these  and  all  other  similar  cases  of 
which  I  have  any  knowledge  I  am  not  clear  that  the  essential 
conditions  requisite  for  a  Heroic  Age  need  involve  more  than 
may  conveniently  be  summed  up  in  the  phrase  '  Mars  and  the 
Muses.'  It  is  to  poetry  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of  the 
stories — and  indeed  much  more  than  this  ;  for  wherever  we  have 
any  evidence  as  to  its  character  heroic  poetry  seems  to  have 
aimed  at  something  more  than  a  mere  record  of  facts.  Indeed 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  exercised  a  considerable  influence 
upon  the  spirit  of  the  times. 

The  part  played  by  '  Mars '  is  perhaps  not  so  obvious  ;  for  it 
is  clear  from  Beowulf  and  the  Odyssey  that  a  state  of  actual 
war  is  not  a  necessary  condition  either  for  heroic  society  or 
even  for  the  formation  of  a  heroic  story.  Yet  I  cannot  call  to 
mind  a  single  story  in  which  the  hero,  i.e.  the  leading  sym- 
pathetic character,  is  not  distinguished  for  personal  bravery ; 
and  usually  the  main  action  of  the  story  turns  upon  a  situation 
in  which  opportunity  is  given  for  the  display  of  this  quality.  It 
appears  to  me  incredible  that  the  types  of  character  most 
prominent  in  all  these  forms  of  heroic  poetry  could  have 
flourished  in  times  of  profound  international  peace  and  settled 
social  conditions^  Indeed  I  cannot  but  think  that  under  such 
conditions  most  of  our  heroes  would  sooner  or  later  have 
found  themselves  in  prison. 

On  the  whole  warfare  is  the  state  of  affairs  most  commonly 
involved   in  heroic  stories.     It  is  a  fact  worth  noting  however 

^  Under  such  conditions  the  nearest  approach  to  the  heroic  spirit  is  afforded  by 
athletic  contests.  Such  contestshaveat  times  produced  what  we  may  call  'heroic 'poetry 
o  Stage  1  (cf.  p.  94).    But  the  motive  for  further  elaboration  of  the  stories  is  wanting. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  44I 

that  this  warfare  almost  invariably  takes  the  form  of  hand-to- 
hand  fighting  and  very  frequently  that  of  a  series  of  single 
combats.  The  national  aspect  of  war  is  seldom  brought  into 
much  prominence.  With  the  Teutonic  and  Greek  evidence  on 
this  subject  we  have  already  dealt  (pp.  329  f,  339  ff.) ;  and  we 
may  perhaps  remark  that  all  the  other  Heroic  Ages  ended  in 
periods  of  failure  or  even  disaster.  In  the  Welsh  and  Servian 
Heroic  Ages  the  warfare  certainly  has  a  religious  side  ;  but  this 
aspect  is  not  always  so  prominent  in  the  poems  as  one  might 
have  expected.  We  know  too  from  historical  sources  that 
Welsh  princes  often  fought  in  alliance  with  the  heathen  English 
during  the  first  part  of  the  seventh  century.  Similar  events  were 
by  no  means  unknown  in  Servian  history.  The  chief  hero  of  the 
Southern  Slavs,  Kraljevic  Marko,  was  in  alliance  with  the  Turks, 
if  he  did  not  actually  fight  on  their  side  at  the  battle  of  Kossovo. 

The  triumphs  for  which  the  heroes  of  heroic  poetry  hope  and 
for  which  they  are  celebrated  in  the  poems  are  primarily  of  a 
personal  character  and  gained  by  personal  prowess,  even  in 
times  of  national  war ;  and  all  the  stories  alike  are  permeated 
by  the  spirit  of  personal  adventure.  Sometimes  we  find  this 
spirit  indulged  with  a  reckless  disregard  of  consequences,  as 
when  Odysseus  seeks  out  the  Cyclops  in  his  cave\  or  when  the 
Beg  Ljubovic  visits  the  white  city  of  Zara.  Not  unfrequently  of 
course  the  object  with  which  such  adventures  are  undertaken  is 
the  acquisition  of  wealth.  But  wealth  itself  is  desired  not  so 
much  in  order  to  ensure  a  life  of  comfort  or  even  a  position  of 
influence,  but  rather  for  the  sake  of  display — that  the  hero  may 
be  able  to  outshine  all  his  rivals  in  splendour.  Desire  of  personal 
glory — often  coupled  with  love  of  adventure  for  its  own  sake — 
appears  to  be  the  leading  motive  in  all  the  various  types  of 
heroic  poetry  which  we  have  considered. 

Now  it  has  often  been  remarked  that  the  savage  is  in  many 
respects  like  a  child.  We  are  certainly  not  justified  in  describing 
the  people  of  any  of  the  Heroic  Ages  treated  above  as  savages  ; 
but  it  would  be  an  equally  great  error  to  regard  their  civilisation, 
even  in  the  best  case,  as  mature.     And  in  this  respect  I  cannot 

1  In  the  folk-tale — at  least  in  some  forms  of  it — the  hero's  arrival  in  the  cave  is 
involuntary. 


442  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

help  thinking  that  modern  historians  have  tended  to  fall  into  a 
mistake  similar  to  that  which  has  sometimes  been  made  by 
European  governors  of  savage  or  semi-civilised  communities. 
It  is  a  mistake  for  which  our  historical  authorities  themselves 
are  doubtless  partly  responsible ;  for  we  need  not  suppose  that 
Greeks  or  Romans  of  the  past,  whether  scholars  or  statesmen, 
were  better  able  to  understand  the  motives  of  heroic  societies 
than  are  similar  persons  in  our  own  days.  The  qualities 
exhibited  by  these  societies,  virtues  and  defects  alike,  are  clearly 
those  of  adolescence.  Further,  we  may  note  in  this  connection 
that  the  evidence  of  history  gives  us  no  ground  for  supposing 
that  the  'heroic'  spirit  is  an  innate  and  permanent  characteristic 
of  certain  peoples.  It  may  be  possible  to  point  to  communities 
in  which  the  Heroic  Age  has  persisted  for  many  centuries,  just 
as  numerous  peoples  in  different  parts  of  the  world  have  remained 
in  a  state  of  '  infancy '  or  savagery  down  to  the  present  time. 
In  Europe  however  the  Heroic  Age  has  been  a  transient  phase. 
The  sequel  has  sometimes  been  disastrous,  sometimes  compara- 
tively prosperous  ;  but  in  every  case  the  ideas  which  animated 
the  Heroic  Age  have  ceased  to  retain  their  hold. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  seeking  to  find  characteristics  common 
to  various  Heroic  Ages.  It  will  be  convenient  here  to  refer 
briefly  to  the  conclusions  at  which  we  arrived  in  the  last  three 
chapters.  We  saw  (p.  365)  that  in  regard  to  social  organisation 
the  outstanding  feature  both  of  the  Teutonic  and  Greek  Heroic 
Ages  was  the  weakening  of  the  ties  of  kindred  and  the  growth 
of  the  bond  of  allegiance.  In  political  organisation  (p.  390  f) 
the  chief  feature  of  both  periods  was  the  development  of  an 
irresponsible  type  of  kingship  resting  upon  military  prestige, 
the  formation  of  kingdoms  with  no  national  basis  and  the 
growth  of  relations  between  one  kingdom  and  another.  In 
religion  (p.  425)  the  predominant  characteristic  in  both  cases 
was  the  subordination  of  chthonic  and  tribal  cults  to  the  worship 
of  a  number  of  universally  recognised  and  highly  anthropo- 
morphic deities,  together  with  the  belief  in  a  common  and 
distant  land  of  souls.  Lastly,  we  observed  (in  Note  VIII)  that 
the  Gaulish  Heroic  Age  appears  to  have  possessed  almost  all 
the  same  characteristics,  while  in  regard  to  social  and  political 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  443 

organisation  analogies  are  also  to  be  found  in  the  Heroic  Ages 
of  the  Cumbrian  Welsh  and  the  Christian  Servians,  though 
hardly — or  only  to  a  very  slight  extent — in  that  of  the  Moham- 
medan Servians. 

Now  it  deserves  to  be  remarked  that  these  characteristics 
are  in  no  sense  primitive.  In  social  organisation  the  distin- 
guishing feature  of  the  Heroic  Age  is  in  the  nature  of  a  revolt 
or  emancipation  from  those  tribal  obligations  and  ideas  by 
which  the  society  of  primitive  peoples  is  everywhere  governed. 
The  same  remark  applies  in  principle  to  political  organisation ; 
the  princes  of  the  Heroic  Age  appear  to  have  freed  themselves 
to  a  large  extent  from  any  public  control  on  the  part  of  the 
tribe  or  community.  The  changes  which  we  have  noted  in 
religion  have  a  similar  tendency.  Tribal  ideas  give  way  to 
universalism  both  in  the  cult  of  higher  powers  and  in  the  con- 
ception of  immortality  ;  and  in  both  the  Teutonic  and  Greek 
Heroic  Ages  these  changes  seem  to  be  associated  with  a 
weakening  in  the  force  of  religion.  Briefly  expressed,  the 
characteristic  feature  of  both  periods  is  emancipation,  social, 
political  and  religious,  from  the  bonds  of  tribal  law. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  emancipation  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing is  partly  of  an  intellectual  character.  This  applies  both  to 
religion  and  to  those  ideas  which  govern  social  relations.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  also  partly  in  the  nature  of  a  freedom  from 
outside  control,  both  in  social  relations  and  in  government. 
The  force  formerly  exercised  by  the  kindred  is  now  largely 
transferred  to  the  comitatus,  a  body  of  chosen  adherents  pledged 
to  personal  loyalty  to  their  chief  So  also  in  government  the 
council  of  the  tribe  or  community  has  come  to  be  nothing  more 
than  a  comitatus  or  court.  The  result  of  the  change  is  that  the 
man  who  possesses  a  comitatus  becomes  largely  free  from  the 
control  of  his  kindred,  while  the  chief  similarly  becomes  free 
from  control  within  his  community.  In  both  cases  the  only 
opposition  that  he  now  has  to  fear  is  from  rivals  who  desire  to 
take  his  place  or  from  persons  outside  the  kindred  or  community 
and  in  a  similar  position  to  himself  Certainly  this  freedom 
applies  only  to  the  case  of  kings  or  princes  with  followings  of 
their  own.    But  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  intellectual 


444  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

emancipation  made  much  headway  except  among  such  persons 
and  their  entourages. 

We  have  seen  above  that  the  characteristics  of  Heroic  Ages 
in  general  are  those  neither  of  infancy  nor  of  maturity — that  the 
typical  man  of  the  Heroic  Age  is  to  be  compared  rather  with  a 
youth.  The  characteristics  which  we  are  now  discussing  are  by 
no  means  inconsistent  with  such  a  view,  though  clearly  they 
will  not  hold  good  for  adolescence  in  general.  For  a  true 
analogy  we  must  turn  to  the  case  of  a  youth  who  has  outgrown 
both  the  ideas  and  the  control  of  his  parents — such  a  case  as 
may  be  found  among  the  sons  of  unsophisticated  parents,  who 
through  outside  influence,  at  school  or  elsewhere,  have  acquired 
knowledge  which  places  them  in  a  position  of  superiority  to 
their  surroundings. 

If  we  examine  the  history  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age  we 
shall  see  that  this  analogy  holds  good  both  for  individual  princes 
and  for  the  class  as  a  whole.  From  the  first  century  to  the  fifth 
— we  may  take  the  cases  of  Italicus  the  son  of  Flavus  and  of 
Theodric  the  Ostrogoth — it  was  customary  for  the  Romans  to 
demand  the  youthful  sons  of  Teutonic  kings  as  hostages.  That 
the  accession  of  such  persons  to  power  in  later  life  would  open 
up  a  channel  for  the  introduction  of  foreign  ideas  needs  probably 
no  demonstration.  But  this  was  doubtless  only  one  of  a  number 
of  such  channels.  There  is  scarcely  a  single  considerable  deposit 
of  antiquities  dating  from  the  first  four  centuries,  not  only  in  the 
south  and  west  of  Germany  but  even  in  Denmark  and  other 
Baltic  lands,  which  does  not  contain  a  large  proportion  of 
Roman  ^  articles.  Among  such  articles  we  may  mention  coins, 
works  of  art  (glass  vases,  statuettes,  etc.)  and,  perhaps  above  all, 
armour  and  weapons.  We  may  refer  in  particular  to  the 
Roman  helmets  and  the  large  number  of  Roman  swords  and 
shield-bosses  found  in  deposits  on  the  east  side  of  the  province 

^  In  this  chapter  I  am  using  the  word  '  Roman '  in  a  very  wide  sense,  viz.  for  the 
civilisation  of  the  Empire  as  a  whole.  Both  the  material  objects  and  the  influence  of 
which  I  am  speaking  came  doubtless  rather  from  the  provinces  than  from  Italy  itself. 
In  many  cases  it  would  probably  be  more  correct  to  use  the  term  '  Romanised  Celtic  ' ; 
cf.  The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  p.  1898".,  though  I  think  now  that  I  was  mis- 
taken here  in  doubting  the  importance  of  (strictly)  Roman  influence  upon  the  Angli — 
especially  in  military  matters. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  445 

of  Slesvig — a  district  remote  from  the  Roman  frontiers.  The 
linguistic  evidence  too  is  in  full  agreement  with  that  of  the 
antiquities.  Of  the  immense  number  of  Latin  loan-words  which 
found  their  way  into  the  Teutonic  languages  it  is  probable  that 
quite  a  considerable  proportion  were  borrowed  in  or  before  the 
Heroic  Age. 

Among  the  various  channels  through  which  Roman  goods 
and  Roman  influence  found  entry  into  the  Teutonic  world  we 
may  mention  trade,  presents  and  subsidies,  and  booty  gained 
by  wars  and  piratical  raids.  But  the  most  potent  influence  of 
all  perhaps  was  the  Roman  practice  of  employing  Teutonic 
mercenary  soldiers — of  which  we  hear  both  from  inscriptions 
and  literary  works.  This  practice  had  begun  as  early  as  the 
first  century,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  those  German  princes 
who  gave  the  Romans  most  trouble,  such  as  Arminius  and 
Civilis,  were  men  who  had  previously  served  with  their  own 
armies.  In  the  early  part  of  the  Heroic  Age  it  appears  that 
a  very  considerable  proportion  not  only  of  the  troops  but  also  of 
the  generals  in  the  imperial  service  were  of  Teutonic  nationality. 
Such  forces  were  contributed  largely  by  communities  which  had 
settled  within  the  boundaries  of  the  empire,  such  as  the  Goths 
and  Vandals  in  the  basin  of  the  Danube  and  those  smaller 
communities  that  we  hear  of  incidentally  in  the  east  of  Gaul. 
But  it  was  by  no  means  only  from  these  dependent  or  semi- 
dependent  principalities  that  the  auxiliary  troops  were  drawn. 
In  the  reigns  of  Constantius  and  Valentinian  I  the  Roman  army 
in  Britain  contained  troops  of  Heruli — a  nation  which  pro- 
bably occupied  the  basin  of  the  Elbe  and  had  never  been  under 
Roman  sovereignty,  although  a  portion  of  it  submitted  to 
Justinian  long  afterwards.  We  have  reason  for  believing  that 
in  the  sixth  century  persons  from  the  farthest  parts  of  the 
Teutonic  world  were  fighting  in  Italy.  Otherwise  it  is  difficult 
to  account  for  the  knowledge  of  Norway  and  Sweden  shown  by 
both  Jordanes  and  Procopius. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  no  doubt  to  suppose  that  the 
comitatus  owes  its  origin  to  this  mercenary  service.  The 
evidence  for  its  existence  goes  back  so  far  that  a  Gaulish 
derivation  would  be  more  probable,  if  it  is  not  of  native  origin. 


\ 


446  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

But  there  can  scarcely  be  any  question  that  this  form  of  service 
tended  to  promote  its  development.  Here  too  we  find  a  satis- 
factory explanation  of  other  phenomena  noticeable  in  the  Heroic 
Age,  in  particular  of  that  military  type  of  kingship  which  rests 
on  no  national  basis.  Further,  it  needs  no  demonstration  that 
such  service  would  contribute  very  largely  to  sweep  away  tribal 
prejudices  and  national  patriotism. 

On  the  whole  then  the  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought 
is  that  the  characteristics  of  the  Heroic  Age  owe  their  origin 
not  so  much  to  the  national  movements  which  brought  about 
the  destruction  of  the  Western  Empire  as  to  the  long-standing 
relations  between  the  two  peoples,  and  perhaps  more  especially 
to  the  influence  exercised  by  mercenary  service.  Now  we  obtain 
a  more  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  effects  produced  on  the 
more  northern  peoples.  It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
warriors  even  from  Denmark  fought  in  the  Roman  armies,  while 
others  again  may  have  entered  the  service  of  Eormenric,  Attila 
or  Theodric.  At  all  events  we  can  hardly  doubt  that,  directly  or 
indirectly,  the  northern  peoples  were  affected  to  no  small  degree 
by  the  influence  of  Roman  civilisation  and  the  Roman  army. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  anyone  will  be  inclined  to  question 
the  influence  of  the  same  civilisation  upon  the  Welsh  Heroic 
Age.  The  greater  part  of  Britain  had  been  under  the  Romans 
for  more  than  three  centuries,  though  some  considerable  time 
elapsed  between  their  retirement  and  the  beginning  of  the 
Heroic  Age.  But  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  characters  who 
figure  in  heroic  poetry  belong  partly  to  the  west  but  chiefly  to 
the  north,  i.e.  to  those  parts  of  the  country  which  had  been  less 
Romanised  than  the  rest.  Moreover  Welsh  tradition  traced  the 
ancestry  of  the  most  important  western  families  to  a  certain 
Cunedda  who,  according  to  a  statement  in  the  Historia  Brittonum 
which  most  historians  seem  disposed  to  accept,  had  come  from 
a  region  in  the  north  beyond  the  Wall  about — or  very  shortly 
before — the  time  when  the  Romans  evacuated  Britain.  The 
chief  northern  families  also  belonged,  at  least  mainly,  to  districts 
which  appear  to  have  been  abandoned  by  the  Romans  early  in 
the  third  century,  and  which  had  probably  never  been  effectively 
occupied.     Dumbarton,  their  principal  stronghold,  lay  far  from 


XIXj  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  447 

the  frontier  of  the  later  province — indeed  on  the  extreme  edge 
of  the  earHer  frontier.  All  the  evidence  at  our  disposal  there- 
fore indicates  that  the  Heroic  Age  was  not  a  product  of  the 
Romanised  part  of  Britain  but  of  those  communities  which 
remained  more  or  less  independent,  more  especially  in  the  region 
beyond  the  northern  frontier.  At  the  same  time  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  even  these  districts  must  have  been  greatly  affected 
by  Roman  influence — probably  in  much  the  same  way  and  to 
at  least  the  same  degree  as  the  Teutonic  peoples  adjacent  to 
the  Roman  frontiers  on  the  Continent.  There  is  little  doubt 
too  that  the  inhabitants  of  these  districts  served  as  mercenary 
soldiers^  The  conditions  then  appear  to  have  been  very  similar 
to  those  of  the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age.  First  we  find  Roman 
influence,  doubtless  both  civil  and  military,  affecting  the  com- 
munities beyond  the  frontier.  Then,  on  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
power,  these  communities,  or  rather  their  princes,  step  in  and 
take  possession  of  part  of  the  province.  The  chief  difference 
between  the  two  cases  is  that  here  the  new  rulers  were  of  the 
same  nationality  and  spoke  the  same  language  as  the  previous 
inhabitants. 

The  origin  of  the  earlier  Servian  Heroic  Age  presents  in 
some  respects  rather  an  interesting  parallel  to  the  case  we  have 
just  been  considering.  Like  the  northern  Britons  the  Servians 
occupied  territories  which  had  formerly  been  within  the  frontiers 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  Their  possession  of  these  territories 
was  recognised  by  the  emperor  Heraclius  (610 — 640)  not  long 
after  their  settlement ;  and  from  this  time  onwards  they  were 
governed  by  a  number  of  petty  princes  of  their  own  in  a  state 
of  semi-dependence,  often  merely  nominal,  on  the  Greek  Empire 
for  about  six  centuries.  During  the  whole  of  this  period,  except 
perhaps  for  a  few  short  intervals,  when  they  were  subject  to  the 
Bulgarians,  they  were  constantly  exposed   to  the  influence  of 

^  It  appears  from  the  Notitia  Dignitatum  that  troops  of  Attacotti  were  largely 
employed  by  the  Romans  on  the  Continent  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century. 
According  to  St  Jerome  (Adv.  louinianum,  ii  7)  the  Attacotti  were  a  British  people; 
and  they  are  mentioned  by  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (xxvi  4.  5  ;  xxvii  8.  5)  as  ravaging 
the  province  of  Britain,  together  with  the  Picts  and  Scots,  in  the  reign  of  Valentinian  I. 
It  is  commonly  held  that  they  belonged  to  the  south  of  Scotland,  though  opinions 
differ  as  to  whether  they  were  Britons  (properly  speaking)  or  Picts  of  Galloway. 


448  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Greek  civilisation.  It  is  probable  too  that  they  were  frequently 
employed  in  war  by  the  Greek  emperors,  first  against  the  Avars 
and  later  against  the  Magyars.  On  the  death  of  Manuel  I 
(1180),  when  the  Empire  rapidly  went  to  ruin,  Stefan  Nemanja 
united  the  various  principalities  and  formed  a  powerful  Servian 
state.  His  work  was  continued  and  extended  by  several  of 
his  successors,  especially  by  Uros  I  (1242 — 1276)  and  Dusan 
(133 1  — 1356),  the  latter  of  whom  brought  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  Balkan  peninsula  under  his  rule.  Here  again  therefore,  as 
in  the  Teutonic  and  Cumbrian  Heroic  Ages,  we  have  the  case 
of  a  semi-civilised  and  'juvenile'  nation  exposed  for  a  long 
period  to  the  influence  of  a  civilised  but  decaying  empire. 
Again  too,  when  the  older  power  gives  way,  the  younger  nation 
asserts  itself  and  takes  possession  of  its  neighbour's  territories. 
In  this  respect  however  the  affinities  of  the  Servian  state  are 
rather  with  the  kingdoms  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Italy  or  the 
Franks  in  Gaul  than  with  the  Cumbrian  Welsh  ;  for  the  latter 
apparently  never  succeeded  in  establishing  a  united  state — at 
least  not  until  their  territories  had  been  greatly  diminished. 

The  history  of  the  later  Servian  (Bosnian)  Heroic  Age  was 
of  a  very  different  kind.  After  the  Turkish  conquest  (1459  ^" 
Servia  proper,  somewhat  later  in  the  west)  a  large  proportion  of 
the  inhabitants  embraced  Islam.  From  this  time  onwards  their 
condition  was  somewhat  comparable  with  that  of  their  ancestors 
under  the  Greeks,  though  they  were  in  much  closer  subjection 
to  the  suzerain  power  than  the  latter  had  ever  been.  Moreover, 
though  they  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of  prosperity  during  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  when  the  Turkish  empire 
was  at  the  height  of  its  power,  they  never  again  formed  an 
independent  state.  There  can  be  no  question  that  during  the 
whole  of  this  period  the  Mohammedan  Servians  were  exposed 
to  foreign  influence,  probably  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  of 
the  cases  with  which  we  have  dealt  above.  But  this  influence 
was  of  a  very  different  character  from  the  others  and  little 
calculated  to  produce  emancipation,  whether  intellectual  or 
otherwise.  In  estimating  the  value  of  the  resemblances  which 
their  heroic  poetry  shows  to  the  types  discussed  above  account 
must  be  taken  of  the  consideration   that  much  has  doubtless 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  449 

been  inherited — not  merely  in  metre  and  phraseology — from 
that  of  the  earlier  period. 

In  dealing  with  the  Gauls  we  are  placed  at  a  disadvantage 
through  not  knowing  when  the  Heroic  Age  began.  But  all 
that  we  do  know  of  their  early  history  bears  a  most  striking 
resemblance  to  the  Heroic  Age  of  the  Teutonic  peoples.  Our 
first  trustworthy  references  to  the  Gauls  (KeXrot)  go  back  to  the 
fifth  century,  at  which  time  they  appear  to  have  occupied  France 
and  some  parts  at  least  of  western  Germany.  It  is  commonly 
held  also  that  they  had  already  penetrated  into  Spain  ;  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  by  this  time  a  considerable  part  of 
the  British  Isles  was  in  the  possession  of  Celtic  peoples.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  if  not  earlier,  they  had 
effected  settlements  in  the  plain  of  northern  Italy,  from  whence 
military  expeditions  frequently  made  their  way  far  into  the 
peninsula.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  same  century  we  hear  of 
Gauls  in  the  Eastern  Alps,  probably  in  the  basin  of  the  Danube. 
Early  in  the  following  century  Gaulish  armies  were  making 
expeditions  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  Balkan  peninsula 
and  even  into  Greece,  while  one  force  effected  a  settlement  in 
Asia  Minor. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  any  civilised  power  had  acquired 
even  a  nominal  authority  over  the  Gauls  before  their  subjuga- 
tion by  the  Romans.  But  it  is  quite  clear  that  for  many 
centuries  they  had  felt  the  influence  of  the  Etruscan  and  Greek 
civilisations,  more  especially  the  former.  Linguistic  evidence 
is  not  available  here,  since  we  know  nothing  of  the  Etruscan 
language  and  little  of  the  Gaulish.  But  the  fact  is  placed 
beyond  doubt  by  the  large  variety  of  articles  of  Etruscan 
origin  or  Etruscan  types,  which  have  been  found  throughout 
the  territories  of  the  Gauls  and  even  in  more  northern  regions. 
The  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  the  influence  of  this 
civilisation  was  comparable  with  that  exercised  in  later  times 
by  Roman  civilisation  on  the  Teutonic  peoples.  Unfortunately 
however  we  have  no  historical  record  of  those  movements  which 
first  brought  the  Gauls  into  southern  Europe.  All  that  can  be 
said  with  certainty  is  that  in  the  earliest  times  for  which  we 
have  trustworthy  evidence  they  appear  usually  as  auxiliaries 


450  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

or  mercenaries  in  the  service  of  the  Etruscans.  Sometimes 
also  they  were  employed  by  the  Greeks,  Carthaginians  and 
Samnites.  And  it  was  not  only  the  Gauls  settled  in  Italy  who 
were  used  in  this  way.  Occasionally  we  hear  also  of  Trans- 
alpine Gauls  or  '  Gaisatoi,'  who  came  to  their  assistance. 
Polybius  (n  22)  states  that  the  latter  name  means  'mercenaries' 
{Bia  TO  fitadov  arpareveiv) ;  and  even  if  his  interpretation  is 
incorrect,  it  is  significant  enough  of  the  opinion  generally  enter- 
tained as  to  the  character  of  these  warriors.  Evidence  to  the 
same  effect  is  afforded  by  the  consideration  that  in  the  fourth 
and  third  centuries  at  least  half  of  Europe  (exclusive  of  Russia) 
appears  to  have  been  under  Celtic  rule,  while  some  five  or  six 
centuries  later  Celtic  nationality  had  vanished  almost  every- 
where. Such  phenomena  are  scarcely  explicable  unless  the 
Celtic  conquests  were  largely  in  the  nature  of  military  occupa- 
tions, like  those  of  the  Goths,  Visigoths  and  Vandals  in  later 
times. 

We  have  left  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  until  the  end  because 
in  this  case  historical  information  is  wanting.  Here  also  it  is 
clear  that  a  high  civilisation  had  existed  in  a  portion  of  the 
area  then  occupied  by  the  Achaeans  ;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  latter  were  deeply  affected  thereby.  The 
difficulty  lies  in  determining  the  relationship  of  the  Achaeans 
to  this  civilisation.  Prof.  Ridgeway's  theory  on  the  question 
has  already  been  discussed.  At  the  same  time  however  it  was 
mentioned  that  there  are  other  scholars  who  hold  that  the 
Achaeans  themselves  were  partly  responsible  for  this  civilisa- 
tion. Some  believe  that  the  prehistoric  civilisation  of  Crete  was 
non-Achaean  until  its  fall,  and  yet  claim  an  Achaean  origin 
for  the  fortresses  on  the  mainland  (Mycenae,  Tiryns,  etc.)S 
while  others  attribute  to  the  Achaeans  not  only  the  buildings 

1  This  appears  to  be  the  view  taken  by  Prof.  Meyer  {Gesch.  d.  Alt?,  i  pp.  701, 
719  f.).  The  problem  will  no  doubt  be  discussed  more  fully  in  his  next  volume. 
Here  I  need  only  mention  that  the  recent  discoveries  of  wall-paintings  at  Tiryns  and 
elsewhere  seem  to  me  to  weigh  rather  heavily  against  the  view  that  the  inhabitants 
of  these  buildings  were  of  a  totally  different  nationality  from  the  '  Minoan '  Cretans. 
It  is  gradually  becoming  clear  also  that — contrary  to  what  had  been  supposed  at  first — 
the  use  of  writing  was  not  unknown  on  the  mainland ;  cf.  Evans,  Scripta  Minoa,  I 
p.  56  ft. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  45 1 

on  the  mainland  but  also  the  later  palaces  in  Crete^  It  is 
recognised  by  the  advocates  of  this  latter  view  that  a  different 
type  of  civilisation  appears  in  other — more  western — districts 
which  have  at  least  as  good  a  claim  to  be  regarded  as  Achaean 
lands.  The  explanation  given  is  that  the  more  primitive  pottery 
and  less  elaborate  buildings  of  these  districts  are  true  products 
of  Achaean  art  and  handicraft,  while  the  remains  found  at 
Mycenae  and  elsewhere  are  due  to  native,  or  rather  Cretan, 
craftsmen  and  builders,  who  worked  for  Achaean  lords. 

Both  these  explanations  are  open,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the 
serious  objection  that  they  fail  to  account  for  the  differences 
between  Homeric  and  Mycenean  (Late  Minoan)  civilisation.  It 
has  been  observed  that  in  regard  to  armature  the  affinities 
of  the  former  lie  apparently  rather  with  the  Warrior  Vase 
(cf.  p.  185),  which  belongs  to  a  later  period  than  the  true 
Mycenean  age.  All  indications  favour  the  view  that  this  type 
of  armature  is  derived  from  that  of  the  Shardina  rather  than 
from  earlier  Mycenean  or  Cretan  types.  Again,  1  do  not  see 
that  the  presence  of  vases  of  '  Late  Minoan  II '  style  in  the 
tombs  found  at  Kakovatos — which  is  identified  with  the  Homeric 
Pylos — can  fairly  be  held  to  prove  that  these  tombs  date  from 
that  period  2;  for,  when  the  manufacture  of  such  vases  had 
ceased  they  may  very  well  have  been  preserved  as  precious 
heirlooms  for  a  considerable  time.  Nor  can  it  be  said  with 
certainty  that  these  tombs  date  from  the  Achaean  period ^  or 
at  all  events  from  the  last  days  of  if*.  The  evidence  of  the 
pottery^   found    in   the   ruins    of   the   citadel    seems    rather    to 

'  Cf.  especially  Dorpfeld,  Alk.  Mifteilungen,  xxxii  600  ff. 

2  Cf.  Dorpfeld,  Atk.  Mitt.,  xxxil  vi  ff.  Dr  Dorpfeld  however  holds  [ib.,  p.  595  ff.) 
that  '  Late  Minoan  II '  and  '  Late  Minoan  III '  were  contemporaneous  and  assigns 
both  styles  to  a  period  (e.g.  1400 — 1 100)  considerably  later  than  English  archaeologists 
will  allow  for  the  former. 

*  One  of  the  chief  arguments  for  this  view  is  that  the  tombs  show  traces  of 
cremation.  But  account  must  be  taken  of  the  possibility  that  they  may  have  belonged 
to  an  earlier  (Arcadian  ?)  stratum  of  Greek  population. 

*  Cf.  Dawkins,  Journ.  Hell.  St.,  xxvii  296,  where  it  is  suggested  that  the  tomb 
first  explored  may  have  belonged  possibly  to  the  ancestors  of  Nestor. 

*  The  great  majority  of  the  sherds  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  citadel  were  of  that 
monochrome  type  which  has  been  met  with  elsewhere  on  the  west  coast  of  Greece 
(Leucas,  Olympia,  etc.)  and  which  Dr  Dorpfeld  regards  as  the  native  pottery  of  the 


452  THE    CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

suggest  that  this  site  was  inhabited  at  a  later  date  than  the 
tombs\ 

In  the  Homeric  poems  we  certainly  find  the  Achaeans  in 
possession  of  the  chief  centres  of  the  prehistoric  civilisation 
both  in  Crete  and  on  the  mainland.  Mycenae  itself  is  repre- 
sented as  the  principal  seat  of  the  most  important  of  the 
Achaean  dynasties.  But  the  poems  themselves  do  not  tell  us 
by  whom  these  places  had  been  founded — though  the  origin  of 
Troy  does  seem  to  be  known.  If  we  are  right  in  believing  that 
only  the  stratum  represented  by  the  Warrior  Vase  and  the  Stele 
corresponds  truly  to  the  conditions  depicted  in  the  poems,  it  is 
a  probable  inference  that  the  Achaeans  came  into  possession 
of  Mycenae  at  a  very  late  period  in  its  history.  In  that  case 
the  presence  of  Agamemnon  in  this  city  would  be  a  phenomenon 
somewhat  parallel  to  that  of  Theodric  (Dietrich  von  Bern)  in 
Ravenna.  In  later  times,  it  is  true,  we  meet  with  stories 
according  to  which  Tiryns  and  Mycenae  were  founded  by 
Proitos  and  Perseus,  though  it  is  not  made  clear  whether  these 
persons  were  regarded  as  Achaeans.  But  have  we  any  reason 
for  believing  that  such  stories  are  more  trustworthy  than  the 
medieval  traditions  which  attribute  the  foundation  of  famous 
Roman  buildings  to  Dietrich  von  Bern  ?  In  view  of  the  parallel 
cases,  both  Teutonic  and  other,  which  we  have  discussed  in 
earlier  chapters,  it  seems  to  me  a  highly  improbable  hypothesis 
that  the  men  of  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  had  long  been  in 
possession  of  an  advanced  civilisation — still  more  that  they 
had  themselves  initiated  the  construction  of  great  palace- 
fortresses  such  as  those  of  Tiryns  and  Mycenae. 

The  problem  which  we  are  considering  has  been  complicated 
by  the  prevalent  assumption  that  the  Achaeans  were  the  first 
Greek-speaking  inhabitants  of  the  land — an  assumption  which 
seems  to  me  to  be  incompatible  with  the  evidence  of  linguistic 
geography.     The  objections  noted  above  to  the  Achaean  origin 

Achaeans  ;  cf.  At/i.  Mitt.,  xxxii  xv  f.  Some  sherds  of  the  same  type  were  found  in 
the  tombs  together  with  the  remains  of  Mycenean  vases.  Only  six  fragments  of 
Mycenean  pottery  were  found  in  the  citadel. 

1  This  explanation  is  rejected  by  Dr  Dorpfeld  {Ath.  Mitt.,  xxxiii  316);  but 
there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  definite  evidence  that  the  citadel  was  destroyed 
soon  after  the  construction  of  the  tombs. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  453 

of  Mycenean  civilisation  would  not  apply  with  the  same  force 
to  the  hypothesis  that  this  civilisation  had  been  taken  over  from 
an  earlier  branch  of  the  Greek  race,  represented  perhaps  in  later 
times  by  the  Arcadians  and  lonians.  For  such  an  explanation 
a  certain  parallel  might  be  found  in  the  occupation  of  the 
(Roman)  cities  in  Britain  by  British  chiefs  from  the  north  and 
west  (cf.  p.  446  f.).  But  in  this  case,  if  we  wish  to  press  the 
analogy,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  civilisation  of  the 
British  cities  was  not  of  native  origin  but  superimposed  on  the 
country  by  invaders  from  overseas.  It  is  by  no  means  im- 
possible that  such  may  have  been  the  case  also  in  Greece. 
Yet  on  the  whole  the  complete  break  between  the  prehistoric 
civilisation  and  that  of  historical  times  must  be  regarded  as 
an  argument — not  conclusive  of  course  but  weighty — against 
any  form  of  the  theory  that  the  possessors  of  the  former  were 
of  Greek  nationality. 

It  may  be  convenient  now  to  recapitulate  briefly  the  various 
points  at  issue.  In  the  first  place  account  must  be  taken  of 
the  undoubted  existence  of  the  prehistoric  civilisation,  regarding 
the  character  of  which  evidence  is  still  gradually  accumulating. 
Further,  it  is  scarcely  open  to  question  that  the  Achaeans  were 
brought  into  contact  with  that  civilisation  in  some  form  or 
other,  though  almost  all  scholars  are  agreed  that  it  did  not 
originate  with  them.  The  chief  questions  which  remain  to  be 
settled  are  (i)  whether  the  civilisation  was  native  or  introduced 
from  abroad  (Crete  or  elsewhere),  (ii)  whether  its  possessors 
were  Greeks  or  non-Greeks,  (iii)  whether  its  monuments  were 
constructed  under  Achaean  domination  or  before  the  centres 
of  civilisation  fell  into  Achaean  hands.  The  first  of  these 
questions  can  only  be  settled  by  a  thorough  examination  of  the 
various  sites,  such  as  is  now  being  conducted  ^     All  that  can 

^  The  general  effect  of  recent  discoveries  has  been  to  bring  out  a  closer  resemblance 
between  the  Cretan  and  mainland  deposits  than  had  hitherto  been  suspected  (cf.  Evans, 
Scripta  Minoa,  i  p.  55  f.).  The  affinities  too  are  by  no  means  confined  to  portable 
objects.  In  particular  note  should  be  taken  of  the  wall-paintings  at  Thebes  and 
elsewhere — more  especially  those  recently  discovered  at  Tiryns,  which  belong  to  two 
distinct  periods  (cf.  Rodenwaldt,  Ath.  Mitt.,  xxxvi  198  ff. )•  The  resemblance  of 
these  to  similar  paintings  from  Crete  is  very  marked,  yet  perhaps  scarcely  sufiicient  as 
yet  to  prove  that  the  possessors  of  Tiryns  were  of  Cretan  origin. 


454  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

be  said  as  yet  is  that  the  buildings  in  several  cases  show  work 
belonging  to  more  than  one  period.  It  is  now  believed  that 
the  earlier  parts  of  the  fortresses  at  Tiryns  and  Mycenae  go 
back  at  least  to  the  beginning  of  '  Late  Minoan '  times,  i.e. 
probably  to  the  sixteenth  century.  On  the  second  question 
something  has  been  said  above.  But  until  further  evidence  is 
forthcoming  a  dogmatic  expression  of  opinion  would  be  out  of 
place.  With  regard  to  the  third  it  appears  to  me  that  such 
evidence  as  we  have  favours  Prof  Ridgeway's  view,  viz.  that 
the  Achaeans  came  into  contact  with  this  civilisation  only  at 
its  fall.  In  that  case  moreover  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  will  fall 
into  line  with  all  the  other  Heroic  Ages  which  we  have  discussed 
above. 

Lastly,  it  seems  to  me  of  essential  importance  that  the 
relationship  of  the  Achaeans  to  the  'sea-peoples,'  more  especially 
the  Shardina,  should  not  be  overlooked.  We  cannot  with 
certainty  determine  whether  or  not  the  Achaeans  were  actually 
descended  from  the  Shardina.  But  the  resemblance  between 
the  two  in  regard  to  armature  scarcely  leaves  room  for  doubt 
that  the  one  had  at  least  come  greatly  under  the  influence  of 
the  other.  Consequently,  whatever  may  be  thought  as  to  the 
proposed  identification  of  the  Akaiuasha  (cf  p.  i88f),  it  is 
highly  probable  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Achaeans  had  once 
been  associated  with  the  '  sea-peoples  \' 

We  have  seen  that  among  the  Teutonic  peoples,  as  also 
among  the  Gauls  and  elsewhere,  mercenary  service  was  a  factor 
of  supreme  importance  in  the  development  of  those  features 
which  give  to  the  Heroic  Age  its  distinctive  character.     Now 

'  For  the  Aegean  connections  of  the  sea-peoples  see  p.  190  f.  Account  is  also  to 
be  taken  of  the  deposits  found  in  the  foreign  settlements  at  Gurob  and  elsewhere  in 
the  Fayum,  to  which  belonged  the  tomb  of  An-Tursha  ('  Pillar  of  the  Tursha  or 
Thuirsha').  These  deposits  cover  a  period  of  about  two  centuries,  from  the  reign  of 
Amenhotep  HI  to  that  of  Sety  H  or  slightly  later — a  period  corresponding  practically 
to  that  in  which  we  find  historical  references  to  the  sea-peoples.  They  contained 
many  stirrup-vases  and  other  objects  of  Aegean  origin.  A  peculiar  custom  which 
prevailed  here  was  that  of  burning  a  man's  personal  effects — presumably  at  death — in 
a  hole  cut  in  the  floor  of  the  house.  No  human  remains  were  found  in  these  holes, 
the  bodies  being  buried  in  cemeteries  according  to  Egyptian  fashion  ;  but  it  has  been 
suggested  that  the  practice  may  have  been  due  to  a  former  custom  of  cremation 
(cf.   Petrie,  Illahun,  Kahun  and  Gurob,  p.    16  fT.). 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  455 

it  is  as  mercenary  soldiers  that  the  '  sea-peoples '  come  before 
our  notice  from  the  time  when  they  are  first  mentioned  down 
to  their  disappearance.  We  know  from  the  Tell-el-Amarna 
tablets  that  Shardina  had  entered  the  Egyptian  service  in  the 
reign  of  Amenhotep  IV  or  his  predecessor,  i.e.  in  the  first  half 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  Later  we  find  them  fighting  under 
both  Rameses  II  and  Rameses  III.  The  references  therefore 
extend  over  a  period  of  nearly  two  centuries.  Nor  was  it  only 
to  the  Egyptians  that  they  lent  their  services.  The  army  of 
the  Hittites  encountered  by  Rameses  II  at  Kadesh  is  said  to 
have  contained  Shardina,  and  warriors  of  the  same  stock  were 
present  in  the  Libyan  army  defeated  by  Merenptah. 

With  the  Shardina  we  usually  find  a  number  of  other 
peoples  associated^;  and  there  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that 
these  were  employed  in  the  same  way.  Reference  may  be  made 
to  the  description  of  the  allies  of  the  Hittites  in  the  Poem  of 
Pentaur,  where  this  is  expressed  quite  clearlyl  The  Pulesatha 
also  represented  on  the  monuments  of  Rameses  III  are  evidently 
well-disciplined  professional  soldiers. 

There  can  be  no  question  then  that  professional  military 
service,  very  frequently  in  the  employment  of  foreign  nations, 
was  the  vocation  of  those  bands  of  warriors  whom  we  have  to 
regard  as  the  predecessors  of  the  Achaeans  of  the  Heroic  Age. 
But  we  can  scarcely  suppose  that  this  mercenary  service  first 
began  in  regions  so  distant  as  Egypt.  It  has  been  mentioned 
above  that  the  earliest  reference  to  Shardina  in  the  Egyptian 
service  goes  back  to  a  time  when  the  Cretan  palaces  were 
probably  still  standing  (cf.  p.  184).  If  so  and  if,  as  is  commonly 
believed,  the  absence  of  fortifications  in  Crete  was  due  to  the 
possession  of  a  thalassocracy  by  its  rulers,  we  must  conclude 
that  these  rulers  permitted  the  early  expeditions  of  the  '  sea- 
peoples.'  That  can  scarcely  mean  anything  else  than  that 
the    Shardina    and    their   confederates    were   first  employed   as 

^  When  Shardina  alone  are  mentioned  account  must  of  course  be  taken  of  the 
possibility  that  this  name  is  representative  of  a  class.  The  Egyptian  mercenaries,  ke 
those  of  the  Hittites  and  Libyans,  may  really  have  been  drawn  from  a  number  of 
similar  peoples  vi'ho  were  collectively  known  under  the  name  which  had  first  become 
familiar  in  Egypt. 

*  Cf.  the  quotation  given  above,  p.  247,  note  6. 


456  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

mercenaries  by  the  Cretans  themselves \  In  that  case  the 
relations  of  these  peoples  with  the  civilised  states  of  the  Aegean 
were  in  all  probability  very  similar  to  those  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples  with  Rome  before  and  after  the  fall  of  the  Western 
Empire. 

The  ultimate  origin  of  the  Shardina  and  their  confederates 
is  a  question  which  as  yet  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  ripe  for 
discussion-.  Later  discoveries  may  show  that  they  were  the 
inhabitants  of  the  western  or  northern  parts  of  Greece ;  or  on 
the  other  hand  they  may  confirm  the  view  that  these  peoples 
had  come  in  part  from  the  western  Mediterranean.  All  that 
can  be  said  at  present  is  that  some  of  these  peoples — the  Pule- 
satha  type — appear  to  have  long  been  settled  in  the  Aegean 
area^  and  that  the  resemblances  and  differences  between  these 
and  the  Shardina  are  of  such  a  kind  as  to  suggest  that  the  two 
were  peoples  racially  distinct^  yet  living  in   adjacent  regions 

^  I  am  not  aware  that  representations  of  Shardina  have  yet  been  found  in  Crete. 
Note  must  be  taken  however  of  the  porcelain  fragment  found  in  the  third  shaft-grave 
at  Mycenae  (cf.  p.  191,  note  4).  The  date  of  these  shaft-graves  can  scarcely  be  much 
later  than  that  of  the  destruction  of  the  palace  at  Cnossos.  Indeed  it  appears  to  be 
the  prevalent  view  at  present  that  they  date  from  '  Late  Minoan  I,'  i.e.  before  the 
palace-period;  cf.  F orsdyke,  yourn.  Hell.  Si.,  xxxi  116,  Hall, //^,  119.  If  this  is 
correct  the  porcelain  fragment  must  of  course  be  much  older  than  the  earliest  Egyptian 
references  to  the  Shardina. 

^  The  use  of  the  word  krn-i  in  the  great  Karnak  inscription  of  Merenptah  has 
given  rise  to  much  disagreement  among  Egyptologists.  Prof.  Breasted  {Ancient 
Records,  Egypt,  in  p.  247  note)  understands  from  it  that  the  Shardina  and  their 
confederates  were  circumcised.  But  the  allusion  is  clearly  to  something  which 
differentiated  these  peoples  from  the  Libyans.  The  Libyans  themselves  however 
are  believed  to  have  practised  circumcision  (cf.  Meyer,  Gesch.  d.  Alt.-,  i  §  167). 

^  Cf.  pp.  190  (note  2),  247.  For  further  references  see  Hall,  Journ.  Hell.  St., 
XXXI  1 19  ff.  In  particular  note  should  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  the  feather  head-dress 
is  worn  by  Ionian  or  Carian  mercenaries  on  a  monument  of  Sennacherib  {ib.,  p.  122  f.). 
Sir  A.  J,  Evans  {op.  cit.,  pp.  24  ff.,  285  ff.)  attributes  the  Phaistos  disk — on  which 
this  type  of  head-dress  first  occurs — to  the  south-west  of  Asia  Minor.  In  this  connection 
however  it  is  perhaps  worth  calling  to  mind  that  according  to  Thucydides  (i  4,  8  ; 
cf.  Herodotus,  i  171)  the  Cyclades  also  were  originally  inhabited  by  Carians.  The 
reference  is  perhaps  properly  to  the  Leleges,  a  people  who  may  have  been  nearly 
related  to  the  Lycians. 

•*  The  Pulesatha  are  represented  as  beardless,  whereas  many  of  the  Shardina  wear 
beards.  More  important  however  is  the  difference  in  physiognomy  between  the  two 
types.  It  has  been  observed  that  the  Pulesatha  approximate  very  closely  to  the  Greek 
type  of  classical  times. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  457 

and  following  a  similar  mode  of  life,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
military  element  is  concerned.  On  the  whole  the  balance  of 
probability  seems  at  present  to  be  in  favour  of  the  following 
propositions:  (i)  that  the  Shardina  element  was  intrusive; 
(2)  that  its  true  home  is  to  be  looked  for  rather  in  the  north 
than  in  the  west^;  (3)  that  its  presence  or  influence  in  the 
Greek  world  is  not  unconnected  with  that  series  of  national 
movements  which  introduced  Thraco-Phrygian  populations  into 
Asia  Minor^. 

^  Attempts  have  been  made  to  find  traces  of  the  Shardina  in  the  '  nuraghi '  of 
Sardinia  and  the  burial-places  adjacent  to  them ;  but,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no 
definite  evidence  in  favour  of  this  connection  has  yet  been  obtained  beyond  the  fact 
that  a  number  of  statuettes  with  horned  helmets  have  been  found  in  the  island.  The 
chief  argument  against  the  western  origin  of  the  Shardina  is  the  absence  of  evidence, 
either  in  history  or  tradition,  for  movements  of  population  or  even  for  cultural  influence 
from  this  quarter — at  least  until  Roman  times — whereas  evidence  is  abundant  not  only 
for  cultural  influence  in  the  reverse  direction  but  also  for  settlements  both  of  '  lUyrians ' 
and  Greeks  in  Italy.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  a  helmet 
somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  Shardina  survived  in  historical  times  among  the 
Thracians  (cf.  Herodotus  vii  76).  Further,  from  II.  xni  576  f.  we  may  probably 
infer  that  the  Thracian  peoples  had  early  become  famous  for  the  manufacture  of 
weapons.  Influence  from  this  quarter  may  have  made  its  way  into  Greece  by  more 
than  one  channel.  But  it  should  be  observed  that  Homeric  poetry  shows  some 
acquaintance  with  the  districts  to  the  north  of  Epeiros  and  Thessaly.  In  particular 
note  should  be  taken  of  certain  personal  names  derived  from  names  of  peoples  in  this 
region,  e.g.  Ile\dywi>,  'OpicrTTjs,  Gu^cttt/s.  It  is  perhaps  not  without  significance  that 
the  two  latter  of  these  occur  in  the  most  important  of  the  Achaean  families,  while  the 
antiquity  of  the  last  is  guaranteed  by  the  aspirate  (as  against  Av^a-rai). 

^  The  extent  of  these  movements  may  be  estimated  by  the  number  of  names  which 
occur  both  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  on  the  east  side  of  the  Aegean,  e.g.  Brygoi 
(Phryges),  Dardanoi,  Moisoi  (Afysot),  Mygdones.,  Sintoi  (Smites),  Pelasgoi;  and  it  is 
not  to  be  overlooked  that  on  the  European  side  most  of  these  names  occur  in  the 
basins  of  the  Axios  and  Strymon  or  the  region  between  them.  Attention  should 
be  paid  also  to  the  common  element  in  place-names,  more  especially  to  those 
(e.g.  n^^ayiios)  which  occur  in  the  islands  (Crete,  etc.)  as  well  as  in  the  two  areas 
under  discussion ;  for  they  seem  to  indicate  that  the  movements  from  the  Balkan 
peninsula  were  not  confined  to  the  Asiatic  mainland.  Even  in  Asia  Minor  itself 
however  the  Thraco-Phrygian  movements  may  at  first  have  affected  a  much  larger 
area  than  that  in  which  languages  of  this  type  survived  in  historical  times.  Herodotus 
(l  171)  states  that  on  the  ground  of  common  ancestry  the  Carians  allowed  Lydians 
and  Mysians  to  use  the  temple  at  Mylasa — a  privilege  which  they  did  not  concede  to 
other  peoples,^  even  to  those  who  spoke  the  same  language  as  themselves.  This 
passage  is  usually  interpreted  as  pointing  to  a  traditional  religious  federation  of  the 
indigenous  peoples.  But  it  is  a  serious  objection  to  this  view  that  the  Mysians  were 
clearly  of  European  origin.     If  the  Lydian  and  Carian  languages  were  non-Indo- 


45^  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

It  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  Shardina  were  the 
direct  ancestors  of  the  Achaeans.  On  the  other  hand  they 
may  have  belonged  to  an  earlier  wave  of  Greek  invasion. 
Or  again  they  may  have  been  a  non-Greek  (perhaps  Thraco- 
Phrygian)  people  whose  relations  with  the  Achaeans  were  rather 
in  the  nature  of  influence,  however  deeply  this  may  have 
penetrated.  That  the  Achaeans  also  were  an  essentially  military 
people  is  shown  by  the  tone  of  Homeric  poetry  throughout  and 
by  the  story  of  the  Iliad  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  by  many  inci- 
dental passages  in  the  Odyssey.  We  have  good  reason  too  for 
believing  that  their  occupation  was  in  the  nature  of  a  military 
rather  than  a  tribal  settlement.  That  is  shown  not  only  by  the 
social  and  political  conditions  reflected  in  the  Homeric  poems* 
but  also  by  the  fact  that,  except  in  two  comparatively  unim- 
portant districts,  they  disappeared  after  the  Heroic  Age  as 
completely  as  the  Ostrogoths. 

The  course  of  our  investigations  has  led  us  to  conclude  that 
there  is  no  reason  for  regarding  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  as 
an  exception  to  the  general  rule  applying  to  such  phenomena. 
Neither  here  nor  in  any  other  case  are  we  justified  in  believing 
that  the  Heroic  Age  was  a  native  outgrowth  from  an  ancient 
and  highly  developed  civilisation.  It  does  not  appear  that  a 
Heroic  Age  can  arise  from  such  conditions,  any  more  than  from 
conditions  which  may  properly  be  called  primitive.  In  four 
of  the  six  cases  which  we  have  considered — and  we  need  scarcely 
hesitate  to  reckon  the  Greek  case  as  a  fifth — the  Heroic  Age 
can  be  traced  back  to  a  similar  series  of  causes.  Firstly,  we 
find  a  long  period  of  'education,'  in  which  a  semi-civilised 
people  has  been  profoundly  affected  from  without  by  the  in- 
fltfence  of  a  civilised  people.  Then  a  time  has  come  in  which 
the  semi-civilised  people  has  attained  to  a  dominant  position 

European,  as  is  commonly  believed,  they  may  have  been  taken  over  from  indigenous 
peoples  such  as  the  Caunioi,  whose  language  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Carians  and 
who  seem  to  have  been  among  the  peoples  excluded  from  the  temple  at  Mylasa.  The 
possibility  that  the  Carian  language  belonged  originally  to  the  Caunioi  is  suggested 
by  Herodotus  himself. 

^  In  particular  note  may  be  taken  of  the  absence  of  national  names   for  the 
populations  of  several  of  the  most  important  kingdoms  ;   cf.  p.   389,  note. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  459 

and  possessed  itself,  at  least  to  some  extent,  of  its  neighbour's 
property.  The  phenomena  which  we  have  recognised  as 
characteristic  of  the  Heroic  Age  appear  to  be  the  effects 
produced  upon  the  semi-civilised  people  by  these  conditions. 

For  the  exceptional  case — that  of  the  Mohammedan  Servians 
— a  special  explanation  has  been  suggested.  Whether  this  ex- 
planation be  correct  or  not,  I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  the 
Heroic  Age  is  universally  due  to  the  same  conditions.  They 
can  scarcely  hold  good  for  the  Irish  Heroic  Age  ;  and  outside 
Europe  also  there  are  cases,  e.g.  among  the  Bantu  peoples, 
of  societies  which  may  be  called  '  heroic '  and  yet  would 
probably  require  a  different  explanation.  All  such  cases  doubt- 
less postulate  conditions  so  far  advanced  as  to  permit  the 
existence  of  a  class  of  persons  who  have  the  opportunity  and 
the  ambition  to  assert  their  individuality  among  and  above 
their  compatriots.  To  deal  adequately  with  these  cases  how- 
ever would  require  a  greater  amount  of  ethnological  knowledge 
than  I  possess.  I  have  ventured  above  to  suggest  that  '  Mars 
and  the  Muses '  are  necessary  for  the  formation  of  a  Heroic 
Age.  But  beyond  this  I  will  not  attempt  to  formulate  a 
definition  of  the  elements  which  constitute  a  Heroic  Age  in 
general.  My  object  has  been  to  call  attention  to  certain  common 
characteristics  exhibited  by  a  limited  number  of  epochs  in 
European  history. 

The  various  Heroic  Ages  of  Europe  are  usually  connected 
with  considerable  movements  of  population.  There  is  some 
reason  for  suspecting  that  this  may  be  true  even  of  the  Irish 
Heroic  Age.  But  such  movements  do  not  necessarily  produce 
a  Heroic  Age.  We  have  no  evidence  for  the  existence  of  a 
Heroic  Age  resulting  from  the  great  movement  of  the  Slavs 
into  eastern  Germany  during  the  fifth  and  following  centuries'. 
Presumably  the  antecedent  conditions  were  wanting.  So  also 
with  the  Dorians.  It  was  only  the  wreckage  of  the  old  Aegean 
civilisation  with  which  they  were  brought  into  contact.     The 

^  It  may  be  observed  also  that  some  seven  centuries  elapsed  between  the  settlement 
of  the  Servians  on  the  lower  Danube  and  the  beginning  of  their  (first)  Heroic  Age. 
This  latter  period  was  of  course  accompanied  by  an  extension  of  the  area  occupied  by 
the  Servians,  though  the  newly  won  territories  were  subsequently  lost  through  the 
Turkish  conquest. 


460  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE    HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

days  of  mercenary  service  too,  with  all  its  civilising  and  at  the 
same  time  denationalising  influence,  had  apparently  passed 
away  long  before  they  came  to  the  front. 

The  general  direction  taken  by  these  movements — though 
here  the  Irish  case  is  an  exception — was  towards  the  culture 
lands  of  the  south — i.e.  the  direction  taken  by  movements  of 
population  was  the  opposite  of  that  taken  by  movements  of 
culture.  The  effect  of  the  movements  which  took  place  in  the 
Teutonic  Heroic  Age  was  to  produce  a  series  of  inclined  or 
tilted  strata  of  population  over  a  large  part  of  Europe.  Thus 
the  Franks  formed  a  ruling  aristocracy  in  Gaul ;  but  the  subjects 
{coloni,  lati)  of  the  Old  Saxons  were  in  all  probability  largely 
of  Prankish  blood.  Again,  the  Vandals  in  Africa  were  the 
wealthiest  and  most  luxurious  community  known  to  Procopius^ 
Yet  in  Genseric's  time  (cf.  p.  369)  there  still  remained  a  Vandal 
population  in  the  old  home  of  the  nation,  of  which  all  traces 
had  disappeared  within  the  next  century.  Presumably  they 
had  been  overwhelmed  by  the  surrounding  peoples.  Similar 
phenomena  are  to  be  found  among  the  Goths  and  other 
Teutonic  peoples,  and  in  earlier  times  among  the  Gauls  and 
Greeks.  In  the  latter  case  we  may  cite  as  an  instance  the 
Cynurioi  (on  the  east  coast  of  the  Peloponnesos),  who  were 
believed  to  be  lonians,  though  they  had  been  absorbed  by  the 
Dorians  of  Argos.  The  fact  therefore  that  we  hear  of  no 
people  called  Achaeans  in  Epeiros  cannot  be  held  to  prove 
that  the  Achaeans  had  never  inhabited  that  region. 

We  hear  sometimes  from  legends  of  national  migrations 
caused  by  insufficiency  of  food.  Historical  records  seem  to 
show  that  such  movements  were  more  frequently  due  to  pressure 
from  neighbouring  peoples.  But  it  is  greatly  to  be  doubted 
whether  these  movements  usually  involved  a  total  displacement 
of  population.  Cases  like  that  of  the  Vandals  indeed  indicate 
that  frequently  the  more  enterprising  part  of  the  community 
were  the  first  to  move  and  that  the  chief  impulse  came  from 

^  Vand.  II  6:  tdvdv  yap  airduTuv  wv  ifffj-ev  i]fj.eU  a^pdraTov  fiev  to  tQv  BafdiXwv... 
^aXavelois  re  oi  ^v/jLTravres  iwexp^vTO  is  ijfiipav  eKacTrfv  koI  rpairi^y  airaaiv  €vdrivo6ffr}, 
bcra  di]  yfj  re  Kal  ddXaffaa  ijdi.<TTd  re  Kal  dpiara  (pipei.     ixpv<yo<f>bpow  8i  ws  iirl  irXeiarov, 

Koi  'yirjdiKTjv  iadrjTa,  ^v  vvv   "Z-qpLKrtv  KoKovaLV,  dfi.irexifJ'fi'oi Kal  i^Krjvro  fxiv  aiirCif  oi 

TToWol  if  irapadeiffots,  iibdruv  Kal  8iv5pwv  ev  ^xoi'O'ti  k.t.X. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  461 

the  attractions  offered  by  the  chance  of  Hving  upon  the  fruits 
of  others'  labour,  whether  in  the  form  of  plunder  or  tribute. 
So  far  as  our  records  go  back,  we  find  among  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  as  among  the  Gauls  and  the  early  Greeks,  a  numerous 
class  who  prefer  the  military  life  to  the  labour  involved  in 
agriculture.  Indeed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of 
the  Teutonic  Heroic  Age — and  probably  of  the  Gaulish  also' — 
is  the  ease  with  which  immense  hosts  of  warriors  could  be 
gathered  for  an  enterprise  of  plunder  or  conquest.  It  is  certain 
that  these  hosts  were  frequently  drawn  from  far  and  wide. 
If  the  national  kings  would  not  embark  on  such  enterprises 
their  subjects  were  ready  to  embrace  the  service  of  neighbouring 
princes,  or  even  that  of  distant  or  alien  nations,  such  as  the 
Romans.  It  is  the  existence  of  this  military  element  which 
in  various  epochs  of  European  history  and  under  similar 
cultural  conditions  has  produced  the  phenomena  comprised 
under  the  term  '  Heroic  Age.'  For  the  special  characteristics 
however  to  which  we  have  called  attention  above — emancipation 
from  primitive  ideas  and  absence  of  national  feeling — the  ex- 
planation is  to  be  found  in  contact  with  civilised  communities, 
especially  in  the  form  of  mercenary  service.  The  military  life 
further  had  the  effect  of  making  the  kings  regard  themselves 
primarily  as  commanders  of  armies.  It  was  for  their  warriors 
that  consideration  was  required  rather  than  for  the  tillers  of 
the  soil,  who  were  largely  of  alien  nationality. 

When  this  is  realised  it  becomes  easy  to  understand  the 
instability  of  heroic  society.  The  military  followers  of  a  peace- 
loving  king,  unless  he  was  very  wealthy  and  generous,  were 
liable  to  drift  away,  while  the  bulk  of  the  population  counted 
for  nothing.  In  the  absence  of  any  truly  national  organisation 
or  national  feeling  all  depended  on  the  personal  qualities  of  the 
leaders.  Under  Theodric  the  Ostrogoths  were  the  chief  power 
in  Europe  ;  but  within  thirty  years  of  his  death  they  disappear 
and  are  not  heard  of  again.  Under  Dusan  the  Servians  seemed 
destined  to  absorb  all  that  was  left  of  the  Greek  empire ;  after 
his  death   they   failed   to  offer    any   effective  resistance  to   the 

^  We  may  compare  the  force  led  by  Agamemnon  against  Troy  and  the  great 
mixed  host  encountered  by  Rameses  IH  (of.  p.    188). 


462  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  [CHAP. 

Turks.  The  kingdoms  of  the  Greek  Heroic  Age  seem  to  have 
succumbed  to  much  less  formidable  antagonists.  So  numerous 
indeed  are  cases  of  this  kind  that  one  is  perhaps  justified  in 
regarding  national  disaster  as  the  normal  ending  of  such  epochs. 

The  Heroic  Age,  both  Greek  and  Teutonic,  presents  us 
with  the  picture  of  a  society  largely  free  from  restraint  of  any 
kind.  In  the  higher  ranks  tribal  law  has  ceased  to  maintain  its 
force;  and  its  decay  leaves  the  individual  free  from  obligations 
both  to  the  kindred  and  to  the  community.  He  may  disregard 
the  bonds  of  kinship  even  to  the  extent  of  taking  a  kinsman's 
life ;  and  he  recognises  no  authority  beyond  that  of  the  lord 
whose  service  he  has  entered.  The  same  freedom  is  exhibited 
in  his  attitude  to  the  deities. 

It  is  of  course  in  princes  that  we  find  these  features  most 
strongly  developed.  That  which  they  prize  above  all  else  is 
the  ability  to  indulge  their  desires  to  the  full — in  feasting  and 
every  form  of  enjoyment  for  themselves,  in  unlimited  generosity 
to  their  friends,  in  ferocious  vindictiveness  towards  their  foes. 
The  hero  of  the  Odyssey,  when  his  opportunity  arrives,  sets 
no  limit  to  the  vengeance  which  he  exacts,  from  prince,  goatherd 
and  maidservant.  Achilles,  the  chief  hero  of  the  Iliad,  is  trans- 
formed into  a  savage  when  he  gets  possession  of  the  dead  body 
of  his  enemy.  His  story  furnishes  a  fitting  parallel  to  that  of 
Alboin,  whosfe  brutal  conduct  brought  upon  him  so  swift  a 
retribution.  And  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  Alboin's 
generosity  was  a  theme  of  poetry  from  Italy  to  England. 

The  best  side  of  heroic  kingship  may  be  seen  in  such  a 
character  as  Hrothgar.  His  conception-  of  the  duties  of  a 
national  ruler  may  have  been  of  a  somewhat  elementary 
character.  But  it  is  rather  as  the  head  of  a  large  household 
that  we  have  to  regard  him ;  and  as  such  he  commands  our 
esteem.  Even  in  the  Merovingian  family — we  may  cite  Gregory's 
description  (HI  25)  of  Theodberht — there  were  princes  who 
won  the  respect  of  Roman  ecclesiastics.  In  the  courts  of  such 
princes  the  conditions  of  life  were  probably  as  good  as  at  any 
time  for  many  centuries  later.  We  have  no  reason  for  sup- 
posing that  the  case  was  otherwise  in  the  Heroic  Age  of  Greece. 


XIX]  THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE  463 

But  above  all  we  have  to  remember  the  heroic  poems.  It 
is  not  reasonable  to  regard  the  Anglo-Saxon  poems,  much 
less  the  Homeric  poems,  as  products  of  barbarism.  The  courts 
which  gave  birth  to  such  poetry  must  have  appropriated  to  a 
considerable  extent  the  culture,  as  well  as  the  wealth  and 
luxury,  of  earlier  civilisations.  It  is  to  be  remarked  however 
that  the  hold  which  these  poems  have  exercised  on  subsequent 
ages,  in  very  different  stages  of  culture,  is  due  not  only  to  their 
artistic  qualities  but  also  to  the  absorbing  interest  of  the 
situations  which  they  depict.  This  interest  arises  very  largely 
from  the  extraordinary  freedom  from  restraint  enjoyed  by  the 
characters  in  the  gratification  of  their  feelings  and  desires  and 
from  the  tremendous  and  sudden  vicissitudes  of  fortune  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  The  pictures  presented  to  us  are 
those  of  persons  by  no  means  ignorant  of  the  pleasures  and 
even  the  refinements  of  civilised  life,  yet  dominated  by  the 
pride  and  passions  which  spring  from  an  entirely  reckless 
individualism  and  untrained  by  experience  to  exercise  modera- 
tion. According  to  the  view  put  forward  above  the  explanation 
of  such  features  is  to  be  found  not  so  much  in  any  peculiarly 
fertile  gift  of  imagination  by  which  the  conventional  court 
poetry  of  these  periods  was  inspired,  but  rather  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times  and  in  the  character  of  the  courts  which 
produced  that  poetry. 


ADDENDA    ET   CORRIGENDA. 

Page  19  ff.  For  further  information  the  reader  may  be  referred  to 
Miss  Clarke's  Sidelights  on  Teutonic  History  during  the  Migration  Period 
(Cambridge,  191 1),  which  contains  a  very  clear  and  interesting  account  of 
the  various  characters  mentioned  in  the  heroic  poems. 

Page  43,  11.  5 — 7.  This  suggestion  can  hardly  be  maintained.  The  true 
name  of  Theodberht's  son  was  probably  Theodwald. 

Page  46,  1.  3  ff.  The  consideration  of  this  difficult  question  has  recently 
been  somewhat  facilitated  by  Richter's  Chronologische  Studien  zur  ags. 
Literatur  (Halle,  19 10).  The  general  effect  of  Dr  Richter's  investigations 
is  to  confirm  the  view  put  forward  by  Prof.  Sarazzin  {Engl.  Stud.,  xvill 
170  ff.)  as  to  the  antiquity  of  Genesis  A.  Unfortunately  I  fear  that  the 
statistics  are  not  complete  and,  further,  that  the  evidence  is  not  always 
treated  with  strict  impartiality.  Thus  in  Beowulf  such  half-verses  as  to 
widan  feore  are  regarded  as  proofs  of  shortening  (through  loss  of  h)  and 
reckoned  in  the  final  statistics  (pp.  9,  85) ;  but  in  Genesis  A  the  metrically 
equivalent  on  fyore  lifde  is  not  so  reckoned  (pp.  24,  89).  The  half-verse 
geseon  meahton  is  cited  in  Beowulf  without  qualification  (p.  15),  but  in 
Exodus  as  doubtful  (p.  18).  In  Beowulf  -wundor  seon  is  taken  to  be  -  x  - 
(pp.  13,  15),  but  in  Daniel  A  it  is  treated  as  doubtful  (p.  32).  Dr  Richter's 
conclusion  that  Genesis  A  is  an  earlier  poem  than  Beowulf  is  certainly  not 
substantiated  by  the  treatment  ol  feore  or  of  postconsonantal  r,  /,  m,  n^,  or 
again  by  that  of  frea,  don,  gan,  sie^ ;  while  compounds  such  as  \reanyd 
obviously  do  not  stand  on  the  same  footing  as  case-forms  like  \rea.  It  is 
only  in  the  treatment  of  intervocalic  h  that  Genesis  A  apparently  shows  a 
more  archaic  character  than  Beowulf  In  the  former  poem  Dr  Richter  cites 
only  one  case  of  contraction  (p.  28),  and  even  this  is  doubtful  ;  but  the  same 
remark  applies  to  at  least  18  of  the  24  (genuine)  cases  which  he  cites  for 
Beowulf  (p.  15).  Out  of  the  five  or  six  probable  cases  of  contraction  in 
this  poem  three  occur  in  practically  the  same  phrase — in  {on,  to)  sele  pam 
hean — while  two  of  the  others  occur  in  consecutive  verses  (910  f).  The 
conclusion  to  which  the  evidence  seems  to  me  to  point  is  that  both  Genesis  A 
and  Beowulf  (even  in  its  Christianised  form)  date  from  the  seventh  century, 
but  that  the  former  has  been  somewhat  better  preserved  than  the  latter.  As 
Genesis  A  is  doubtless  of  monastic  origin,  we  may  reasonably  expect  that  it 
was  committed  to  writing  at  an  earlier  date.  In  the  intervening  period  the 
text  of  Beowulf  may  have  suffered  many  changes  (such  as  the  insertion  of 
the  article)  at  the  hands  of  minstrels. 

^'  ^  As  shown  by  Dr  Richter's  lists  (pp.  9  ff.,  24  ff.  and  13  ff.,  27  f.). 


ADDENDA   ET   CORRIGENDA  465 

The  further  question  raised  by  Prof.  Sarazzin  {op.  cit.,  p.  192  ff.)  as  to  the 
relationship  of  Genesis  A  to  Caedmon  cannot  be  discussed  here.  But  in 
view  of  the  evidence  brought  forward  I  do  think  it  would  be  worth  while  to 
examine  and  compare  the  characteristics  of  the  various  '  Caedmonic  '  poems 
from  all  points  of  view.  Apart  from  the  extremely  improbable  dating  of 
certain  sound-changes  proposed  by  Prof.  Morsbach  (cf  p.  66  ff.  above)  and 
accepted  both  by  Sarazzin  and  Richter,  I  see  no  reason  for  supposing  that 
Caedmon's  poems  have  entirely  perished. 

Page  61,  1.  4  ff.  Throughout  this  book  I  have  followed  the  view  generally 
held  by  scholars  in  the  past  that  the  expression  geongum  cempan  in  Beow. 
2044  refers  to  Ingeld.  In  recent  years  several  scholars  have  adopted  a 
different  interpretation,  viz.  that  it  means  not  the  prince  himself  but 
a  nameless  member  of  his  retinue.  This  interpretation  is  due  primarily  to 
V.  2061  f.,  where  it  has  been  assumed,  somewhat  hastily  in  my  opinion, 
(i)  that  se  <7Si?r  must  denote  the  slayer  and  (2)  that  Ingeld's  own  country  is 
the  scene  of  the  tragedy.  On  the  basis  of  this  interpretation  Prof.  Olrik 
{Danmarks  Heltedigtning.^  ll  p.  30  ff.,  especially  p.  37  ff.)  has  now  put 
forward  a  theory  that  the  episode  in  Beowulf  has  little  more  than  the  names 
in  common  with  Saxo's  story  of  Ingellus'  revenge,  and  that  the  latter  is  in 
its  main  features  the  creation  of  a  Danish  poet  of  Harold  Bluetooth's  time. 
His  explanation  is  certainly  interesting  and  ingenious  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
it  appears  to  me  to  be  open  to  serious  objections.  Thus  he  has  to  admit 
(p.  39)  that  in  the  only  other  reference  to  the  bridal  tragedy  ('bryllups- 
kampen')  contained  in  the  poem  (v.  82  ff.)  the  scene  is  laid  in  the  Danish 
king's  hall.  His  explanation  is  that  here  we  have  a  variant  form  of  the 
story  (cf.  Widsith,  v.  45  ff.),  emanating  from  a  different  poet.  But  surely 
one  cannot  place  much  confidence  in  an  interpretation  which  involves  the 
assumption  of  such  an  inconsistency  as  this^  Still  more  important  is  the 
reference  to  Ingeld  {Htnieldus)  in  Alcuin's  letter  to  Hygebald  (cf.  p.  41), 
which  Prof.  Olrik  seems  to  have  entirely  ignored.  From  this  passage  it 
would  seem  that  Ingeld's  fame  was  as  great  in  England  in  the  eighth 
century  as  it  ever  became  in  Denmark ;  and  such  fame  is  scarcely  compatible 
with  the  passive  role  assigned  to  him  by  the  theory  under  discussion.  But, 
more  than  this,  have  we  any  ground  for  supposing  that  Alcuin  did  not 
exercise  his  judgment  in  taking  Ingeld  as  his  example  of  a  perditus  rexl 
If  the  story  of  Ingeld  known  to  him  was  substantially  identical  with  that 

^  So  far  as  I  can  see  the  only  argument  for  this  inconsistency  which  Prof.  Olrik 
brings  forward  is  the  statement  (Vol.  i,  p.  16;  cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  38,  note  i,  and  p.  39, 
note  i)  that  the  fight  at  the  marriage  precedes  Beowulfs  visit  to  the  king's  hall.  This 
however  seems  to  mean  that  the  present  tense,  which  is  used  throughout  the  episode 
(nearly  a  score  of  examples),  must  be  taken  as  a  historic  present — a  construction  which 
is  rarely  or  never  found  elsewhere  in  Anglo-Saxon  heroic  poetry.  In  Beowulf  only 
one  instance  (v.  1879)  is  cited  by  Nader  (Anglia,  X  547),  and  this  is  clearly  erroneous. 
A  possible  case  does  occur  in  v.  1923  (wurta^);  but  most  recent  editors  either  emend 
(to  wunade)  or  regard  the  passage  as  a  speech. 


466  ADDENDA   ET   CORRIGENDA 

recorded  by  Saxo,  as  I  myself  believe,  he  could  hardly  have  found  a  case  in 
which  Christian  and  heathen  obligations  presented  a  more  glaring  contrast. 
To  the  heathen  this  hero  appealed  as  the  pious  son  who  exacts  vengeance 
for  his  father's  death  ;  but  to  the  Christian  he  was  doubly  abhorrent,  not 
merely  as  a  heathen  but  also  as  a  murderer  and  a  truce-breaker. 

Like  other  heroic  stories  recorded  by  Saxo  and  Icelandic  authors  the 
story  of  Ingellus  has  without  doubt  a  long  poetic  history  behind  it.  Prof. 
Olrik's  investigations  have  rendered  it  probable  that  an  element  in  this 
poetry  dates  from  the  tenth  century.  It  may  be  that  the  poem  used  by 
Saxo  was  actually  composed — or  re-cast — at  that  time.  But  I  must  confess 
to  some  scepticism  as  to  the  possibility  of  determining  with  certainty  what 
proportion  of  the  material  is  to  be  assigned  to  the  various  periods  inter- 
mediate between  the  sixth  and  twelfth  centuries  ;  and  I  am  disposed  to 
think  that  in  general  Prof.  Olrik  has  underrated  the  significance  of  the 
earlier  elements. 

Page  64,  I.  6.  It  should  have  been  mentioned  that  the  expression  "to 
persons  born  after  800"  applies  only  to  the  period  extending  down  to  975. 
I  have  not  examined  the  evidence  available  for  later  times.  About  this  time 
a  new  factor  is  introduced  by  the  revival  of  interest  in  heroic  poetry. 

I  would  also  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  statistics  are  confined  to 
historical  documents  and  do  not  include  names  (of  moneyers)  found  only  on 
coins.  My  impression  from  a  perusal  of  the  material  collected  in  Mr  Searle's 
Onotnasiicon  Anglo- Saxonicum  is  that  this  element  will  not  appreciably 
affect  the  statistics. 

Page  75,  I.  26fTf.  Reference  should  have  been  given  to  the  Exeter 
Gnomic  Verses,  Sgfif. 

Page  no.  On  the  subject  discussed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter 
the  reader  is  referred  to  Heusler,  S.-B.  d.  Akad.  zu  Berlin^  1909,  P-  937  fi"-, 
and  Van  Gennep,  La  Formation  des  Lcgendes.  The  definitions  given  above 
may  not  be  entirely  satisfactory — mention  should  perhaps  have  been  made 
of  the  '  Ortssage  ''■ — but  they  will  probably  be  found  sufficient  for  the 
purpose  of  this  book. 

Page  ii6ff.  On  this  subject  reference  should  be  made  to  Panzer, 
Studien  zur  germ.  Sagengeschichte,  I  Beowulf .,  which  contains  a  careful  and 
detailed  examination  of  the  Marchen  in  question.  Unfortunately  I  have 
not  been  able  to  use  this  work,  as  it  did  not  come  into  my  hands  until  the 
first  eight  chapters  of  my  book  were  in  print.  In  regard  to  those  points  on 
which  I  have  chiefly  laid  stress,  viz.  that  Beowulf  is  to  be  identified  with 
Biarki  and  that  he  appears  to  be  a  historical  character,  Prof.  Panzer's  views 
(pp.  368  ff.,  390  ff.)  are  practically  identical  with  those  expressed  above.  On 
the  other  hand  he  holds  that  the  story  of  Biarki — the  portion  dealing  with 
his  origin,  as  well  as  the  adventure  at  Leire — comes  from  the  same  folk-tale 
as  the  story  of  Beowulf  and  Grendel.  His  theory  as  a  whole  gives  rise  to 
important  questions  regarding  the  origin  and  distribution  of  folk-tales,  which 


ADDENDA   ET   CORRIGENDA  467 

cannot  be  discussed  here.  Thus  I  should  like  to  know  how  far  the  same 
folk-tale  can  arise  independently  in  different  regions.  Again,  the  Marchen 
with  which  he  deals  seem  to  me  to  be  highly  composite  structures,  which  I 
should  be  inclined  to  regard  rather  as  aggregations  of  folk-tales.  This  is 
true  more  especially  of  the  elements  common  to  the  stories  of  Beowulf, 
Grettir  and  Ormr,  the  close  affinities  of  which  have  been  brought  into  a 
much  clearer  light  by  Prof.  Panzer's  researches.  It  may  be  that  the 
elaborate  story  which  underlies  all  three  was  treated  in  poetry  at  an  early 
date ;  but  I  see  no  more  reason  now  than  before  for  believing  that  the  two 
Icelandic  stories  have  been  affected  by  any  poem  dealing  with  Beowulf 
himself 

Page  iiyf.  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  Ormr  Storolfsson  was 
related  to  Grettir,  both  being  descended  from  Haengr,  the  great-grandson 
of  that  Ketill  Haengr  of  Hrafnista  whose  story  is  largely  taken  up  with 
adventures  with  trolls  and  iotnar. 

Page  124.  For  the  death  of  Frotho  III  the  reader  may  be  referred 
to  Olrik,  Danmarks  Heltedigtning,  ll  p.  239  ff. ;  and  for  the  connection 
between  this  character  and  the  Beaw  of  the  genealogies  to  {ib.)  p.  249  ff. 
As  stated  above  (p.  126,  note)  I  should  prefer  the  form  Beowa,  for  earlier 
Biowi  {diS  Aella  for  earlier  Aelli;  cf  p.  64).  The  latter  form  may  be  con- 
nected with  Byggvir. 

Page  139  ff.  On  the  Nibelungenlied  reference  may  be  made  to  Prof. 
Rothe's  article  Nibelungias  und  Waltharms  (S.-B.  d.  Akad.  zu  Berlin,  1909? 
p.  649). 

Page  161,  1.  I  f  The  references  to  Sarus  (accidentally  omitted  here} 
are  Olympiodoros,  p.  449  (ed.  Niebuhr),  Jordanes,  Roinana,  §  321  {Mon. 
Germ.,  Auct.  Ant.  v  41). 

Page  180, 1.  20 ff.  It  has  rightly  been  pointed  out  to  me  by  Mr  C.  A.  Scutt 
that,  if  the  statement  attributed  by  Herodotus  (Vi  3)  to  Demaratos  is  to  be 
trusted,  the  average  length  of  a  generation  in  the  Spartan  royal  families 
may  reasonably  be  expected  to  be  somewhat  longer  than  elsewhere.  Yet  in 
point  of  fact  this  is  not  borne  out  by  the  evidence  available  for  the  historical 
period  (from  the  fifth  to  the  third  centuries),  nor  yet  by  that  of  the  genealogies 
for  the  period  between  Theopompos  and  Cleomenes,  if  the  commonly  accepted 
date  for  the  first  Messenian  war  is  correct. 

Page  185,  1.  20  ff.  Recent  discoveries  have  rendered  it  probable  that 
cremation  was  practised  in  Crete  in  very  early  times.  Up  to  now  however 
all  the  evidence  apparently  comes  from  the  Early  Minoan  period,  so  that 
the  point  upon  which  Dr  Mackenzie  lays  stress  remains  practically  un- 
affected. 

Page  190,  1.  2ff.  I  regret  that  when  this  was  written  I  had  not  observed 
that  Prof.  Meyer  accepts  the  statement  of  Xanthos  with  regard  to  the 
Phrygian  invasion.     On  this  question  see  p.  437,  note  2. 


468  ADDENDA   ET   CORRIGENDA 

Page  198,  1.  27  ff.  On  this  subject  reference  may  be  made  to  Shewan, 
The  Lay  of  Dolon^  which  appeared  too  late  for  me  to  be  able  to  make  use 
of  it. 

Page  244,  note  2.  A  different  view  is  taken  by  Allen,  Jour.  Hell.  St.  XXX 
312  ff.,  where  a  full  discussion  of  the  Trojan  Catalogue — as  also  of  the 
Achaean  Catalogue  {ib..,  p.  292  ff.) — will  be  found.  Mr  Allen's  conclusions 
differ  greatly  from  the  views  expressed  above. 

Page  265,  note  3.  In  the  poem  HyndlulioS  (cf.  p.  12)  the  genealogy  of 
Ottarr  the  son  of  Innsteinn  is  traced  back  to  a  certain  Svanr  hinn  rauSi. 
The  same  genealogy  occurs  in  the  document  Hversu  Noregr  byg^ist 
(published  in  the  Fornaldar  Sogur  NorSrlanda,  II  p.  6  in  Dr  Valdimar 
Asmundarson's  edition)  ;  and  here  Svanr  hinn  rauSi  is  said  to  be  the  son  of 
Finndlfr  by  Svanhildr  the  daughter  of  Day  {Dagr  Dellingsson)  and  the  Sun 
{Sol,  dottir  Mundilfara).  This  document  however  belongs  to  a  very  late 
period — the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century — and  I  know  of  no  earlier 
authority  for  the  first  part  of  the  genealogy. 

Page  285,  note  i,  1.  4.  For  "l  p.  687"  read  "i  ii  p.  687,"  and  similarly 
in  all  subsequent  references  to  the  second  edition  of  Prof.  Meyer's  Geschichte 
des  AUe?-tums. 

Page  313,  note  i.  For  "Pasic"  read  "Pavic"  (and  so  also  in  the  notes 
on  the  following  pages). 


INDEX 


Achaia  174,  281,   289. 

Achaioi  (Achaeans)  176  f.,  etc.,  (in  Crete) 

177  f.,  186  f. 
Achilles  175,  -112,  250,  263  f.,  269,  275  ff., 

288  f.,  295  f. ,  462. 
A'Sils  (cf.  Eadgils)   17,  20,  31,    153  f. 
Aelfwine  (see  Alboin). 
Aeolic  element  in  Homeric  poems  208, 

215'  273,  290  f. 
Aeolic  peoples,  etc.  209,  272  ff.,  295  f. 
Aeolis  210  f.,  227,   231  ff.,  240. 
Aeschylus  171,  237  ff 
Agamemnon  (i)  of  Cyme  227,  231. 
Agamemnon  (ii)  of  Mycenae  174,   222, 

237  ff.,  274  ff.,   288  f.,   302,  382  ff. 
Aias  (i),  son  of  Oileus  175,  302. 
Aias  (ii),  son  of  Telamon  175,  202,  204, 

302  f. 
Aithiopis   170,   197,   236,  244. 
Alboin  26,  28,  462. 
Alcinoos  384. 
Alcman  215,   222,  266. 
Alcuin  41,   73,  79  f.,  465. 
Aldhelm  80. 

Ali  (cf.  Onela)  20,   153  f. 
alliances  373  f.,  387  ff. 
Amalaswintha  371  f. 
Ammianus  Marcellinus  23,  366. 
Amyclai  240,  302. 
Angli  31  {.,   51,  61,  97  f.,  376,  405. 
Ansgar  255  f. 
Aphrodite  416  ff. 
Apollo  250  f.,  416  ff. 
Arcadian  284  f.,  287,   436  f.,  453. 
Archilochos  194,  216,  226  f. 
Ares  416  ff. 
Argo  196,  245,  261. 
Argos  274  ff. 
Artemis  416. 
Asgar*Sr  400. 
Asia  Minor  (ethnography  of)  178,  245  ff. 


assembly  368  f.,  382  f. 
Athene  250  f.,  416  ff. 
Athens  171,  216  ff.,  381,  421. 
Atli  (cf.  Attila)  13  f.,  22,  146  f. 
Attila  22,  37  f.,  84  f.,   156. 
Audoin  371. 

Balder   112,   400  f.,   405. 
Bavarian  characters  31,  33. 
Bede  71,  73,  79,  350,  414  f. 
Bellerophon  212,  356  f.,  380. 
Beowulf  I  f.,  47  ff.,  etc. 
Bemlef  80,  87,   222,  243. 
Biarkamal   17,  60,    121,   402. 
Biarki  119  ff.,  466. 
birds  (speaking)  98,    128. 
Bithynians  245  f. 
boasting  326  f. 
Boeotia  214,  283  f. 
Bosnian  poetry  loi  ff.,  216,  429. 
Bragi  15,  58. 

Bravalla  (Bravik)  25,  251. 
bronze  and  iron  195,   199  f. 
Brunanburh  (poem)  3,  34,  332. 
Brynhildr  7,    13  f.,   14O  ff.,   163  ff. 
Burgundians  7,  22,  31,  351,  366. 

Cadmos  267. 

Caedmon  45  f.,   79,  230,  465. 

Caesar  413,  427  ff. 

Callinos  171,  226  f. 

Caria,  Carians  179,   245  ff. 

Cassiodorus  26,  85,  374. 

Catalogue  (Hesiodic)    194,    197  f.,    227, 

242. 
Catalogue  of  Ships  174,  279,   289,  379, 

387  f.,  468.^ 
Chalon-sur-Saone  162. 
chariot  203  f. 
Charles  M artel  127  f. 
Chios  176,  209. 


470 


INDEX 


Christian  influence  in  Anglo-Saxon  poems 

47  ff.,  241. 
Cilices  246  ff. 
Cinaithon   170. 
Circe  258  f.,  419. 
class  gradations  351  f.,  364  f. 
Cleisthenes  193. 
Clovis  31,  85,  347. 
Clytaimnestra  229,  237  f. 
Cnossos  178,  311. 
comitatus  328  f.,  348,  350,  361  ff.,  376  f., 

443- 
council  369  ff.,  383  ff. 
cremation  53  ff.,  397  f.,  410  f.,  422  f.,  467. 
Crete  177  f.,   184  ff.,  311  ff.,  435,  450  ff., 

467. 
Cumbrian  history  108  f.,  430,  446  f. 
Cyme  214. 

Cynewulf  (i),  poet  45. 
Cynewulf  (ii),  king  of  Wessex  349,  351. 
Cynurioi  460. 

Cypria  170,   197,   234  ff.,  244,  248. 
Cyzicos  196. 

Danes  i  f.,  15,  17,  20 f.,  24f.,  29,  31,  etc. 

Danish  heroes  i  f.,   17,  20,  31,  etc. 

Demodocos  221,   234. 

Deor  3,   56,  81,  92. 

Dietrich  von  Bern  (cf.  Theodric)  5,  7  ff., 

23.   154  f-.  3"  f-.   333.  452- 
Diomedeia  250  f. 

Diomedes  175,   278,  379  f.,  419. 
divine  parentage  264,  357. 
divinity  of  kings  367,   381  f. 
Dodona  417,  437. 
Doloneia  198  f.,  298. 
Dorians   174,    178  f.,    184,   186  f.,   459 
dragons  122  if. 
Dusan  430,  448,  461. 

Eadgils  (i)  2,  27,  32,  56,  81. 

Eadgils  (ii)  (cf.  AiSils)  2,  20,  153. 

Eastgota  (see  Ostrogotha). 

Edda  (Older)   10  ff.,  99  f.,  232. 

Edda  (Prose)   15. 

Edda  theology  394,  400,  404,  406  f. 

Edwin  334,  349,  369. 

Egill  Skallagrlmsson  16,  226. 

Egypt  184  f.,   187  ff.,  266,  455. 

Einhard  5,  62,  243. 

Eireksmal  15,  257. 


Ekkehard  6,   57,    162. 

Eormenric    (Ermenrich)    2  f.,    8  ff.,    23, 

37.   157.  347- 
Epeiros  437,  460. 
Epigonoi  171. 

eponymous  heroes  131  f.,  267  ff.,  301. 
Eratosthenes  179. 
Eric  the  Victorious  252  f. 
Etruscans  449  f. 
Etzel  (cf.  Atli)  7  f.,  22,  etc. 
Exodus  (Anglo-Saxon)  45,  464. 
Eyvindr  Skaldaspillir  15  f.,  91,  254. 

family  pride  327  f. 

festivals  369,  383. 

fictitious  names  44,   159  ff.,  299. 

Finn  2,   20,  26,  42,  333. 

folk-tales  no  ff.,  258  ff.,  264  ff.,  466  f. 

Franks    31,   39,    337,    343,    345  f.,    352, 

368,  460. 
Frey    11,    15,    125,     253,     367,    394  f., 

399  ff.,  404. 
Freyia  1 1  f.,  400,  402. 
Fria  (cf.   Frigg)   115,  408. 
Frigg  394,  403.  405- 
Frisians  2,  31,  80,  89  f.,  370. 
Fro'Si  15,  27,   123  ff.,  467. 

Gaulish  heroic  poetry  427  f. 

Gaulish  history  427  ff.,  449  f. 

Gautreks  Saga  239,   385,  403. 

Geatas  (Gotar)  i  f.,  31  f.,  35,  119  f.,  etc. 

Gelimer  86,  94. 

genealogies,  Anglo-Saxon  42,  408  f. 

genealogies,  Greek   179  ff.,  267. 

Genesis  (Anglo-Saxon)   21  r,  464. 

Genseric  369  f.,  460. 

Geruthus  258  f. 

Glaucos  341. 

glory,  love  of  87  f.,  325  f.,  329. 

glossaries,  Anglo-Saxon  68,  70. 

Gliimr  253. 

Gondul  254,  263. 

Gormo  258  ff. 

Gothic  heroic  poetry  10,  62  f.,  86  f. 

Goths  23,  26,  31  ff.,  etc. 

Grendel  116  f.,   121  f.,  466. 

Grettis  Saga  n6  f.,  467. 

Gu^run    13  f.,    37,    146  f.,    152  f.,    156, 

163  ff. 
Gundobad  22,  338  f. 


INDEX 


471 


Gunnarr  (see  Guthhere) 
Gunnlaugs  Saga  91  f. 
Guntharius,  Gunther  (see  Guthhere). 
Guthhere    (Gunnarr,   Gunther)    6  f.,    I4, 
21  f.,  138  f.,  141  ff.,   146  f.,   163,   165. 
Gylfaginning  229. 

Haakon,   earl   of  Lade    16,   91,    252  ff., 

401  f. 
Haakon  I,  king  of  Norway  15,  91,  254, 

263. 
Hades  422  f. 
Hadingus  125  f.,  260. 
Haethcyn  337,  346. 
Hagbar«r  17,  27,  333. 
Hagena    (Hogni)    (i),    6  f.,    14,    137  f., 

140  ff.,    161  f. 
Hagena   (Hdgni)    (ii),    see    He'Sinn   and 

Hogni. 
Hakonarmil  15,  97,  254  f. 
Ham'Sir  and  Sdrli  14,  37,   156  f.,  160  f., 

333  (cf.  Sarus  and  Ammius). 
Haraldr  Hilditonn  17,  24  f.,  251. 
Harold  the  Fair-haired  15,  91,   296. 
Havamal  11,  229,   397. 
heathen  elements  in  Beowull  52  f. 
Hector  269  ff. 
He'Sinn   and   Hogni  16,   21,    27  f.,    112, 

135  ff-i  333  (cf.   Hetel  and  Hagen). 
Helen  249,  265  ff.,  337. 
Helios  (cattle  of)  259. 
Hellenic  peoples  285  ff. 
Hephaistos  416  f. 
Hera  416  ff. 

Heracleidai,  Return  of  the  174,  180,  331. 
Heremod  20,  60,  366. 
Herhor  312. 

Hermanaricus  10,  19,  etc.  (cf.  Eormenric). 
Hermes  416. 

HeruU  346,  372  f.,  407,  411,  445. 
Hesiod    171  f.,    194,    210,    214  f.,    223, 

228  ff.,   242. 
Hetel  and  Hagen  (cf.  He^inn  and  Hogni) 

8f. ,  21,  etc. 
Hildr  (Hilde)  8  f.,  16,  136  f. 
Hildebrandslied  5,  62,  94  f. 
Hiorungavagr  252. 
Hittites  178,   188  ff.,  204  f.,  246  f. 
Holmryge  (cf.  Rugii)  21,  28. 
Homer's  birthplace  179,  208  f. 
Homeric  armature  185  f.,   191,  201  ff. 


Homeric  civilisation  186  f.,  199  ff.,  434  ff- 

Hornklofi  15,  91. 

Hrolfr  Kraki  17,  20,  349. 

Hrolfs  Saga  Kraka  120  ff. 

Hrothgar  i  f.,  20,  83,  119,  354,  368,  462. 

Hygd  372. 

Hygelac  i  f.,   24,   341,  371  f. 

HyndluIiotS  12,  229,  402,  468. 

lason  196. 

Iceland  10,  91  ff.,   394  f.i  398  ff. 

Idomeneus  175,  278,   306. 

Iliad  169,   174  f.,   193  ff.,  etc. 

images  205. 

Ingeld  (Ingellus,  Ingialdr)  17,  36,  41  f., 

61.  333.  465  f- 
inscriptions,  Anglo-Saxon  69,  71,  214. 
inscriptions,  Greek  209,  217,  280  f. 
international    interest    of  heroic    poetry 

34  ff-,  335  f- 
international  relations  373  ff.,  386  ff. 
invulnerability  129,   264. 
Ionian  Isles  175,  274. 
Ionic  cities  176,  236,  245  f. 
Ionic  dialects  208  f.,  215  ff.,  283. 
Ionic  language  of  Homeric  poems  208, 

215  ff.,  273. 
lormunrekr  14,  19,  etc.  (cf.  Eormenric). 
Iphigeneia  238  f. 
Istros  269  f. 
Ithaca  356,   378. 

Jomsvikingar  251. 

Jordanes  10,  26,  62,  86  f.,   157. 

kindred  344  ff.,  353  ff.,  442  f. 
kingship  227  f.,  337,  366  ff.,   378  ff. 
kinsman  (slaying  of)  346  ff.,  359  f. 
Kossovo  313,  316  f.,  429,  441. 
Kraljevic  Marko  441. 
Kriemhild  (cf.  Gu'Srun)  7  f.,  19,  145  ff., 

163  ff- 
Kudrun  8  f.,   16,   19,  34,   135  f. 

Langobardi  9,  26,  62,  89,   115,  371  ff. 

Langobardic  poetry  9  f.,  115,  251,  413. 

Langres  31,   162. 

Lazar  313  ff. 

Leire  377,  403. 

Leleges  246,  248. 

Lesbos  176. 


472 


INDEX 


Little  Iliad  170,    197,  236. 
Ljubovic  (Beg)   103,   441. 
Locrians  269  f.,   278,   357. 
Lo'Sbrok  (Ragnarr)   17,  24,  295  f. 
Lokasenna  ii,  83,  403. 
Loki   II,  403. 
Ludwigslied  5,  21,  34, 
Lycians  178  f.,  212,  356  f. 
Lycurgos  334  f. 

Maldon  (poem)  3,  97. 

manes-worship  398  f.,   410,  421. 

Marcellinus  Comes  37. 

marriage-customs  98,   205,   358  f. 

Menelaos  175,  277,  356,  362. 

Merenptah  187,  455. 

mercenary  seivice  445  ff.,  455  f.,  461. 

Merovingians  345  f.,   367. 

Merseburg  charms  405,  408  f.,  412. 

Midas  227. 

Miletos  176,  231,  246. 

Milos  Obilic  314  f.,  317  f- 

Mimnermos  332. 

Minoan  civilisation   184  ff.,  451  ft. 

Minos  310  ff^. 

minstrelsy  79  ff-,  221  ff. 

Murad  I  313  ff. 

Mycenae    185,    240,    274,    308  f.,    435, 

450  ff. 
Mycenean    civilisation     185  ff. ,     190  ff., 

200  ff.,  218,   233,  435  ff.,  451  f. 

Nekyia  197,  229,  257,  260  f. 
Nestor  175,   272,  277,  342. 
Nibelungenlied    7,    139  ff.,    164  f.,    224, 

233,   .393.  467- 
Niflungar  (Nibelunge)   140  ff. 
Nior'Sr  399  f.,  405. 
nobility  352,  364. 
north-west  Greek  281  ff. 
Norway    10,    15,    30,    32  f.,    59,    91  f., 

100,  ii8ff.,  375,  395,  401,  404,  406  f. 
Nostoi  170,    197,   234  ff. 

Odoacer  23,  376  f. 

Odysseus  175,  258,  273  f.,  288  f.,  297  ff., 

358,  363  f.,  419. 
Odyssey  169,   175,  193  ff-,  etc. 
Offa  (i),  king  of  Angel  4,  17,  26  f.,  126, 

333.   376. 
Offa  (ii),  king  of  Mercia  126,  334  f. 


officials  352. 

Ohthere  (Ottarr)  20,   153. 
Old  Saxons  88  f.,  370,  407,  410. 
Olympos  232,  416  f. 
Onela  (cf.  AH)  2,  20,   153  f.,   347. 
Ongentheo  2,  153,  340. 
Orestes  237. 

Orms  Thattr  Storolfssonar  117  f.,  467. 
Ostrogotha  10,   21,  26. 
Othin  II,   13,    114,  251,   253  ff.,    394  ff. 
^  (cf.  Woden). 

Ottarr  (i),  son  of  Innsteinn  12,  402,  468. 
Ottarr  (ii),  father  of  A'Sils  (see  Ohthere). 

Paphlagonia  245. 

Paris  222,   229,   269  ff. 

Patroclos  328  f.,  361  f. 

patronymics  355. 

Paulus  Diaconus  25  f.,   372  f. 

Peisistratos  216,   256. 

Pelasgic  Argos  274,   278  ff. 

Pelasgoi   177,    186,   248,   285  ff. 

Penelope  358  f. 

Pentaur  (Poem  of)  247,  455. 

Periandros  261,  422. 

personal  allegiance  348  ff. ,  361  ff. 

personal  names  (heroic)  42  ff.,  64  ff.,  231. 

Phaeacians  297,   299  f.,  384  f. 

Phaistos  268,   311. 

Phemios  221,  234. 

Philistines  (see  Pulesatha). 

Phocis  283. 

Phoinix  279,  360  f.,  363. 

Phthia  279,  286. 

Phthiotis  176,  280,  282,  286  f. 

place-names  (heroic)  43  f. 

Poseidon  416  ff. 

Polyphemos  258. 

Praisos   178,   213. 

priests  367,  380- 

Priscus  37,  62,  84. 

Procopius  86,  97  ff. ,  128  ff.,  etc. 

Proitos  212,  452. 

Pulesatha  188  ff.,  455  f. 

Pylos  277,  451. 

Quedlinburg  Annals  6,  9,  23,  37,  80. 

Rabenschlacht  8,  23. 
Radiger  -98,  370  f. 
Rameses  II   188,  247,  455. 


INDEX 


473 


Rameses  III  185,   188  f.,  455. 

Ravenna  23,  452. 

Reginsmal,   Fafnismdl,   Sigrdrifumal   13, 

145.   235. 
riding  204. 

Roman  influence  444  ff. 
royal  marriages  373  f.,  386  f. 
Rugii  28,   31,  134  (cf.  Holmryge). 
Russian  heroic  poetry  104  f. 

Salamis  193,  302  f. 

sanctuaries  205  f. ,  400  f. ,  406  f. 

Sarpedon  305,  357. 

Sarus  (i)   160  f.,  377,  467. 

Sarus  (ii)  and  Ammius  10,  14,  etc.   (cf. 

HamSir  and  Sorli). 
Saxo  Grammaticus  17,  20,  25,  etc. 
Scheria  379,  384. 
Scyld  75,   131  f.,  373. 
Servian  (Christian)  heroic  poetry  103  f., 

313  ff.,  429  f. 
Servian  history  313  ff.,  430,  447  ff. 
Sety  I  204. 

Seyfridslied  7,  122,  140  f.,  144  f. 
Shardina  188  ff.,  201,  451,  454  ff. 
shield  201  f. 

Shield  of  Heracles  169,   175. 
Sidonius  ApoUinaris  85. 
Siegfried    7,    19,    31,    33,    139  ff.,    164 

(cf.  Sigur'Sr). 
Sigarr  17,  21. 
Sigmundr  (Sigemund)  2,   16,  59  f.,   114, 

122  ff.,   142,  251,  297. 
Sigur^r   12  ff.,    59,    114,    139  ff.,    163  ff., 

263  f.,  333  (cf-  Siegfried). 
Sigur'Sr  Hringr   17,   24  f.,   251. 
single  combats  339  f. 
Smyrna  208  ff.,  332. 
Sparta  179  ff.,   184,  331. 
Spercheios    206,   279  ff.,  287,  417,  419. 
spoils  340  f. 
stages     in     history     of     heroic     poetry 

94  ff. 
Starka^r  17,  36,  92  f. 
Stesichoros  171,   239  f.,   266,  310. 
Strassburg,  battle  of  340,  349. 
succession  356 

suitors  of  Penelope  300  f.,  363. 
Sunilda  10,   160  f.   (cf.  Svanhildr). 
supernatural  beings  114  ff.,  250  ff. 
supernatural  properties  128  f.,  262. 


Svanhildr  14,   16,  37,  157  (cf.  Sunilda). 
Swedes    (Sweon,    Sviar)   2,    15,    20,    31, 
153  f-.  367  ff-.  399- 

Tacitus  78,  349,  368  f.,  413. 

Tchakaray  (Zakar)   188  f. 

Telemachos  242  f. 

Tell-el-Amarna  188,   192,  455. 

Thebais  171. 

Theodberht  23  f.,  462. 

Theodric    3,    19,    23,    25,    29  ff.,    154  f., 

373,  461  (cf.   Dietrich  von  Bern). 
Thersites  228. 
Theseus  266. 
Thessaly  232,   269  ff. 
Thetis  264,  418  f. 
Thi'Sreks  Saga  af  Bern  9,  57,  134,  138  f., 

145  f- 
Thiotiolfr  15,  91. 
Thor  II,   253,   394  ff.,  404. 
Thorger'Sr  Holgabru'Sr  252,  401  f. 
Thorkillus  258  f. 
Thraco-Phrygian    peoples    178  f.,     190, 

457  f- 
Thucydides  286,  293,  308  ff. 
Tiryns  452,  454. 
tragic  poets  171  f. 
tribal  heroes  267  ff. 
Troy  (Hissarlik)  200,  294  f.,   309. 
Tyrtaios  226,   331. 

Uffo  17,  61. 

Unferth  159,  347. 

Upsala  154,  206,  368,  377,  399  f..  407. 

Valhalla  (Valholl)  254,  396  ff,  410  ff 

Valkyries  254,  397,  411  f. 

Vandals  31,  86,  115,  369,  371,  445,  460. 

Vellekla  16,  254. 

Venantius  Fortunatus  85. 

vengeance  344  f.,  353. 

Vidigoia  27,  62  (cf.  Widia). 

Viking  Age  25,  90  ff.,  100,  251  ff.,  342, 

404,  406  f. 
Virgil  74  ff. 

Volsunga  Saga  16,   145  ff.,   164,  251. 
Volundarkvi^a   12,    132,   134  f- 
Voluspa  II,  229. 

Waldhere  (Waltharius)  2,  6,  38  f.,  57  f., 
137  ff.,  151  f.,  161  f.,  333,  341,  376  f. 


474 


INDEX 


Waltharius  (see  Waldhere). 

Wanderer  (poem)  3,  92,  350. 

Warni  97  f. 

Warrior  Vase  185,   191,  451  f. 

Weland  3,  9,   12,   132  ff. 

Welsh  heroic  poetry  105  ff. 

Weoxtan    20,     159,     3-29  f.,     340,     347, 

350- 
wergelds  345,  352,   354,  365. 
Widia  27,  132,  135  (cf.  Vidigoia,  Witege, 

Wudga). 
Widsith  2,  20  f.,  26,  56,  81,  87  f. 
Widsith  (name)  43  f. 
Wiglaf  159,   328  f.,  349. 
Willebrord  259. 
Witege   8  f.,    19,   27,    31,   132,    135    (cf. 

Widia). 


Woden    (Wodan)    115,    405,   408  ff.    (cf. 

Othin). 
Wolfdietrich  8,  23,    155. 
women  in  the  Heroic  Age  337  f.,   372. 
Worms  6  f.,   146. 
writing  211  ff. 
Wudga   19  f.,   27,   331   (cf.  Widia). 

Xanten  7,  31. 
Xanthos  437  f.,  467. 

Ynglinga  Saga  16,  367,  397,  399. 
Yngvi  367,  405. 

Zakar  (see  Tchakaray). 

Zeus  416  ff. 

Zeus  Agamemnon  381. 


DATE  DUE 


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Correnf 


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AA    001  245  794 


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